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Yellow Pickle

A pickled cabbage dish flavored with turmeric, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Yellow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the heads of cabbage into quarters and brine for 4 days.

  2. Soak the cabbage in cold water until fresh.

Make the pickle

  1. In a kettle, combine the cabbage with vinegar and enough turmeric to color it yellow.

  2. Boil until nearly tender, then drain through a colander.

  3. In a kettle, combine the drained cabbage with 1½ gallons of strong vinegar, 5 lbs of brown sugar, grated horseradish, ground ginger, garlic, white mustard seed, celery seed, allspice, cloves, mace, black pepper, and the green or red peppers.

Cook

  1. Cook until the cabbage is perfectly tender.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Horseradish + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together719 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Heads of cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and softens into a tender texture as it cooks.
Strong vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Grated horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent heat to the pickle.
Garlic
Adds a pungent savory aroma and flavor.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor and a slight crunch to the pickle.

The step that matters

Cook until the cabbage is perfectly tender. Heat softens cabbage by breaking down its cell walls. Stopping at the right point keeps some texture; overcooking turns the cabbage mushy and watery.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, garlic, mustard, celery):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, garlic, mustard, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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