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Spanish Pickles

A pickled mix of green tomatoes, onions, cauliflower or cabbage, spices, mustard, cucumbers, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Spanish Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Salt the sliced green tomatoes and onions for 24 hours.

  2. Drain well and mix with turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, white mustard, and small cucumbers.

Cook

  1. Layer the mixture in a kettle and cover with vinegar.

  2. Boil until tender, watching closely to prevent burning.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Turmeric + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and soften into a tender, chunky texture when boiled.
Onions
Add savory bulk and flavor that mellows during salting and boiling.
White mustard
Contributes pungent, sharp flavor that mellows as the pickle cooks.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and gives it its tang.

The step that matters

Boil until tender, watching closely. The mixture is thick and rich in sugars and solids, so it can scorch on the bottom of the kettle. Stirring and close attention prevent burning while the vegetables soften.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cauliflower, turmeric, clove, cinnamon, mustard, cucumber):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cauliflower, turmeric, clove, cinnamon, mustard, cucumber. 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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