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Sweet Mango Pickle

A pickled mango preserved in a sweet vinegar and spice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sweet Mango Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Soak the mangoes in salt and water for one week.

  2. Place grape leaves in the bottom of a kettle and layer the mangoes with leaves in between.

  3. Mix equal parts vinegar and water with 1 teaspoon of alum.

  4. Scald the mangoes until green, but do not boil.

  5. Transfer the mangoes to cold water and let them cool.

Make the syrup and spice mixture

  1. Combine 2 pounds of sugar, ½ gallon of vinegar, and ½ gallon of water.

  2. Scald the mixture for three days.

  3. Peel the mangoes and extract the seeds.

  4. Scald 1 pint of white mustard seed, ½ ounce of mace, ½ ounce of cinnamon, and 12 ground cloves.

  5. Add ½ teaspoon of anise seed, 1 ounce of celery seed, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1 pint of chopped cabbage.

Stuff, pack and pour

  1. Stuff the mangoes, tie them up neatly, and pack them in a jar.

  2. Prepare 3 pounds of sugar and 1 gallon of good vinegar, and let the mixture nearly boil.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the stuffed mangoes.

  4. Place a plate in the jar to keep the mangoes submerged in vinegar.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mango + grapetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together101 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mangoes
The main fruit, which is firmed, stuffed and pickled in the vinegar mixture.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and helps preserve the fruit.
Alum
Helps firm the mango flesh so it holds its shape during long scalding.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Scalding the mangoes until green. Heat softens the fruit, so the mangoes must be scalded only until they turn green and never boiled. Boiling breaks down the flesh, leaving them mushy and unable to hold the stuffing.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, grape, sugar, vinegar, mustard, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, grape, sugar, vinegar, mustard, cinnamon, clove. 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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