Why it works: Mustard and horseradish 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 ↓
Green Mangoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mangoes
Wash the mangoes and soak them in salt water strong enough to float an egg for 3-4 weeks.
Soak the mangoes in cold water for 5-6 hours before greening them with alum and grape leaves.
After cooling, remove the insides and place them in vinegar for 2 weeks.
Stuff and pack
Mix the mustard seeds, mace, celery seed, and horseradish in a bowl.
Add 3 cups of sweet oil to the mixture and stuff the mangoes.
Tie the mangoes with yarn and place them in jars with the peeled onions.
In a separate bowl, combine sugar, horseradish, long pepper, allspice, and celery seed.
Stir well and pour over the mangoes in the jars, ensuring they are covered.
Store and mature
Cover the jars and place them in the hot sun daily for 3-4 weeks.
Check the jars every month or two, adding more vinegar if necessary.
This pickle is not ready for use for at least a year.
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.
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Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,832 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Celery + horseradishtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together835 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
- Mangoes
- Provide the main body and fruity flesh that the pickle is built around.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Mustard seed
- Contributes a sharp, pungent bite to the filling.
- Horseradish
- Adds a hot, pungent note that lingers after the pickle is made.
- Sweet oil
- Adds fat that carries the spice aromas through the stuffing.
The step that matters
Keep the mangoes fully covered. Pour the sugar and spice mixture so every mango is submerged. Exposed fruit meets air, which lets mould and spoilage organisms grow, while the acidic liquid covering it protects the pickle.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, mustard, celery, horseradish, onion, sugar, pepper):
- Turmericfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mango, mustard, celery, horseradish, onion, sugar, pepper. 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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