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Salad

Bielons, Mangoes and Cucumbers

Pickled cucumbers seasoned with mustard, spices, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bielons, Mangoes and Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut the top off the cucumbers, leaving a hinge of rind.

  2. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon.

  3. Fill the cucumbers with equal parts mustard seed, ground pepper, ginger, and garlic.

  4. Sew or tie the top back on with white thread.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a bowl, mix vinegar, salt, mustard flour, curry powder, bruised ginger, turmeric, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Add salad oil and shallots to the mixture.

  3. Steep the spices in the vinegar, then pour it hot over the filled cucumbers.

Seal and store

  1. Seal the cucumbers tightly in a jar.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers (in the method)
Form the pickle body that absorbs the spiced vinegar and seasoning.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent heat and sharp flavor to the stuffing.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savory depth to the stuffing.
Turmeric
Gives the pickling liquid a yellow color and earthy flavor.
Salad oil
Carries fat-soluble spice flavors through the pickling liquid and coats the mixture.

The step that matters

Pour the spiced vinegar hot over the filled cucumbers. Heating the vinegar with the spices extracts their flavor and aroma into the liquid, and pouring it hot helps it penetrate the cucumbers. Sealing tightly keeps the acid and spices in contact with the cucumbers during storage.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, pepper, ginger, clove, vinegar, flour, turmeric. 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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