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Jackson Pickles

Pickled tomatoes seasoned with salt, mustard seed, horseradish, green pepper, and cold vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 297 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Jackson Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt.

  2. Let sit overnight.

  3. In the morning, pour clear water over the tomatoes and drain immediately, ensuring all water is removed.

Pack and cover

  1. Pack the tomatoes in jars in layers with mustard seed, horse-radish, and green pepper, using about 6 green peppers for each peck of tomatoes.

  2. Cover the packed jars with cold vinegar and tie cloth over the tops.

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. Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Mustard + horsetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Firm, smooth, green tomatoes
Provide the main body of the pickle, staying firm when they are not cooked.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the tomatoes, firming them for crisp pickles.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that layers through the packed jars.
Horse-radish, finely chopped
Adds a pungent, sharp heat that flavors the pickle.
Cold vinegar
Acidifies the tomatoes, preserving them and giving the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Draining the salted tomatoes thoroughly. Any water left behind dilutes the vinegar and weakens preservation, and it can soften the tomatoes. Draining immediately and removing all water keeps the pickle firm and better protected.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, horse, radish, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, horse, radish, pepper, vinegar. 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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