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Heath Piccalilli

A pickled relish of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, celery, and spices, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Heath Piccalilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine chopped tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, and celery in a bowl.

  2. Mix in coarse sea salt and let stand for 12 hours.

  3. Drain the mixture thoroughly and scald it in 2 quarts of vinegar.

  4. Drain again and pack the mixture into jars.

Add the spiced vinegar and seal

  1. Once cold, pour over 2 quarts of vinegar mixed with grated horseradish, mace, cinnamon, allspice, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Add celery seed and mustard seed, cover with a plate to keep submerged, and seal the jars with a thick cloth.

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. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chutney and absorb the pickling liquid.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and reducing moisture before pickling.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving the vegetables and giving the pickle its sharp flavor.
Onions
Add pungency and sweetness that mellows during pickling.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk that holds its texture in the brine.
Horseradish
Contributes sharp, pungent heat to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Draining after the salt rest. Salting draws out a lot of liquid, and draining thoroughly before scalding removes it. Leftover water dilutes the vinegar and can weaken preservation and texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, cucumber, onion, celery, vinegar, horseradish):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, cucumber, onion, celery, vinegar, horseradish. 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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