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Pickled Mangoes

Pickled muskmelons preserved in a brine and spiced mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melons

  1. Select small muskmelons.

  2. Cut a small round opening at the stem end to remove the seeds, saving the cut piece.

  3. Make a strong brine with as much coarse sea salt as the water will take and soak the melons for three days.

  4. Soak the melons in fresh water for twenty-four hours.

  5. Chill the melons and then drain them.

Stuff and pickle

  1. Mix the stuffing: combine mustard seed, horseradish, garlic, celery seed, peppercorns, mace, sugar, ground mustard, ground ginger, and salad oil.

  2. Stuff the melons with the mixture, replace the cut pieces, and tie them in place with soft cords.

  3. Pack the melons in a stone crock and pour scalding vinegar over them.

  4. Store in a cool, dark place for at least four months to ripen.

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 + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Horseradish + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together719 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Small muskmelons
Serve as the hollow vessel that holds the spiced stuffing while pickling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the melons and seasons them through the strong brine.
English mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during the long pickling period.
Grated horseradish
Contributes pungent heat that fades as the pickle matures.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with gentle sweetness.
Scalding vinegar
Acidifies the melons and preserves them while they ripen.

The step that matters

Soaking in strong brine. Too little salt or too short a soak leaves the melons soft or prone to spoiling. Salt draws water out and firms the flesh, so the brine must be strong and the full three days allowed.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, horseradish, garlic, celery, sugar, ginger, vinegar):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, horseradish, garlic, celery, sugar, ginger, 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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