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Chopped Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage, green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Chopped Pickle

Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chopped Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbages, green peppers, green tomatoes, and cucumbers together.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and let stand overnight; then drain off the water.

  3. Add the chopped and scalded onions to the mixture and stir well.

Pickle and pack

  1. Transfer to a jar and cover with vinegar; let it stand for 24 hours.

  2. Drain again and layer the mixture with ground mace and mustard seeds alternately.

Make the syrup and pour

  1. In a pot, combine enough vinegar to cover the mixture with spices and brown sugar.

  2. Boil the vinegar mixture and pour it over the pickles while hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

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 give it a tart, fresh body.
Cabbages
Add crunch and bulk that holds up through the long salting and pickling.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables so they stay crisp rather than soggy.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavor.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and a molasses note.
Onions
Add pungent flavor that mellows during scalding and pickling.

The step that matters

Drain after salting and again after the 24-hour stand. Excess water left in the vegetables dilutes the vinegar and softens the texture, so the pickle may turn watery and lose crispness.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, tomato, cucumber, onion, vinegar, mustard. 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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