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Frexcii Pickle

A pickle made with tomatoes, beans, cabbage, onions, peppers, spices, mustard, sugar, turmeric, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Frexcii Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes and soak them in strong brine overnight.

  2. Press the tomatoes through a colander.

  3. Chop the cabbage and onions, and break the beans.

Cook

  1. Mix the tomatoes, cabbage, onions, beans, and spices in a large kettle.

  2. Cover the mixture with vinegar and boil for three hours.

  3. Add turmeric before serving.

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

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

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and acidity that give the pickle its body and tang.
String beans
Add crisp-tender texture and bulk to the pickle.
White onions
Add savory depth and aroma as they soften during the long boil.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a firm, crunchy texture that holds up through cooking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's sharpness.
White mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during long cooking.

The step that matters

Boil for three hours under vinegar. Long simmering in vinegar softens the vegetables and blends the spices, but too little time leaves them raw and sharp, while the vinegar must fully cover the mixture so it cooks evenly and preserves well.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, beans, onion, pepper, cabbage, mustard, celery. 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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