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Perslan Pickle

A pickle made with green tomatoes, onions, string beans, cauliflower, nasturtium seeds, and a vinegar-sugar mustard oil brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 514 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Perslan Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the onions, beans, and cauliflower separately.

  2. Soak the nasturtium seeds and green tomatoes in brine for 24 hours.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Heat the vinegar in a pot.

  2. Mix the turmeric and ground mustard with a little cold vinegar, then add to the hot vinegar, stirring with a wooden spoon until thick.

  3. Add the olive oil, sugar, and mustard seeds to the mixture and cook for 4 minutes.

Pack the jars

  1. Pour the mixture over the prepared vegetables.

  2. Pack the vegetables in earthenware or glass jars.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beans + cauliflowertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Beans + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together419 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Pure cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent mustard flavour and helps thicken the liquid.
Mustard seeds
Contribute a sharp, pungent flavour and a crunchy texture.
Olive oil
Adds fat, giving the pickling liquid a richer mouthfeel.
Turmeric roots
Adds a yellow colour and an earthy, aromatic flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the mustard and turmeric into the hot vinegar. Dry mustard and turmeric clump easily. Mixing them first with a little cold vinegar makes a smooth paste, and stirring it constantly into the hot vinegar keeps it from forming lumps or scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, beans, cauliflower, cider, vinegar, sugar, turmeric):

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, beans, cauliflower, cider, vinegar, sugar, 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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