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Mango Pickles

A pickled mango dish preserved in vinegar with spices and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Mango Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Soak the mangoes in brine for 7 days.

  2. Wash the mangoes in clear water.

  3. Pack the mangoes in large stone jars with fresh vine leaves.

  4. Sprinkle 2 ounces of powdered alum over the mangoes.

  5. Fill the jars with boiling water, cover tightly, and let them stand overnight.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix horseradish, celery, onions, white mustard seed, black mustard seed, mace, cinnamon, allspice, and black pepper.

  2. Add pieces of melon, small cucumbers, sterna seed, radish pods, and chopped cabbage to the mixture.

Stuff and pickle

  1. Stuff the mangoes with the mixture and sew each bung with coarse thread.

  2. Pack the stuffed mangoes in jars and cover with good quality cider 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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 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

Green mangoes
Provide the firm, tart fruit that is stuffed and pickled.
Powdered alum
Firms the mango flesh so it keeps its shape during pickling.
Cider vinegar
Acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavor.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavor to the filling.
Horseradish
Contributes pungent heat to the filling.

The step that matters

Sprinkle the alum and soak with boiling water. Alum firms the mango tissue so it does not turn soft during pickling; too little alum or skipping the firming step leaves the fruit mushy in the jar.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, horseradish, celery, onion, mustard, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, horseradish, celery, onion, mustard, cinnamon, allspice. 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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