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Yellow Pickle

A mustard seed pickle with ginger, pepper, spices, horseradish, celery seed, garlic, lemons, brown sugar, and cider vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Yellow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the articles as directed on page 86.

  2. In a large container, combine the black mustard seed, white mustard seed, broken ginger, long black pepper, allspice, cloves, mace, turmeric, radish seed, grated horseradish, celery seed, garlic, and lemons.

  3. Add the brown sugar and cider vinegar to the mixture.

  4. Stir well and set aside until ready for use.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Black mustard seed
Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the pickle.
White mustard seed
Adds milder mustard pungency and body to the pickle.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and sharpens its flavor.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, volatile heat that complements the mustard.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, ginger, pepper, allspice, clove, turmeric, radish):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, ginger, pepper, allspice, clove, turmeric, radish. 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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