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Green Cucumber Mangoes

A pickled cucumber and vegetable mixture seasoned with mustard, pepper, and sugar, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Green Cucumber Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut a block square out of the side of each cucumber and scrape out the seeds.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in weak salt water for 5 hours.

  3. In a bowl, mix cabbage, green peppers, celery seed, white mustard seed, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and sugar.

  4. Insert 2 small onion sets and 2 small string beans into each cucumber.

  5. Fill each cucumber with the dressing.

  6. Replace the block of cucumber and tie it with a strip of cotton.

Pickle and jar

  1. Layer vine leaves, cucumbers, and powdered alum in a kettle until full.

  2. Cover with vinegar and scald for ½ hour.

  3. Lift the cucumbers out of the vinegar into jars.

  4. Boil 1 gallon of fresh vinegar with 1½ pounds of brown sugar for 15 minutes. Skim the mixture.

  5. Pour the mixture over the pickles.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp body that is stuffed and holds the pickling flavour.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and crunch to the filling, absorbing the brine and dressing.
Vinegar
Acid that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp, tangy flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and depth in the brine.
Powdered alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm during scalding, keeping their crispness.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the vegetables and seasons the filling.

The step that matters

Scalding the cucumbers in vinegar. Scalding for too long or at too high a heat can soften the cucumbers. Keep the vinegar just below a hard boil so the cucumbers stay firm while the filling cooks through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, pepper, celery, mustard, sugar, beans):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, pepper, celery, mustard, sugar, beans. 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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