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Pickled Mangoes

Pickled mangoes preserved with salt, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Cut the mangoes in half and remove all the seeds.

  2. Tie the mango halves together with coarse thread and soak them in a mixture of coarse sea salt and water for 3 to 4 days.

  3. Wash and drain the mangoes.

Soften and drain

  1. Place them in a kettle with vine or cabbage leaves on top or cover with a clean coarse cloth.

  2. Pour in enough hot water to cover the mangoes and keep them warm near the fire.

  3. Remove the mangoes from the water.

  4. Untie the mango halves and drain the cut sides down.

Fill and pickle

  1. Cut horse-radish into fine slips and mix with mace, cloves, pepper, allspice, and mustard seed.

  2. Fill the mangoes with the spice mixture and add a clove of garlic to each if desired.

  3. Reassemble the mango halves and tie them together again.

  4. Place the filled mangoes in jars and cover them with vinegar.

  5. Remove the threads 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cabbage + radishtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Mangoes
Form the main body of the pickle, taking up the salt, spices and vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the mangoes and seasons the fruit during the long soak.
Horse-radish
Adds sharp, pungent heat that stands up to the sweetness of the mango.
Vinegar
Acidifies the jars, adding sourness and helping preserve the pickled fruit.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent bite to the spice filling.

The step that matters

Soaking in salt and water for 3 to 4 days. The salt brine must fully penetrate the mango halves; too little salt or time leaves the fruit soft or unevenly seasoned, while the salt draws out water so the flesh firms and takes up flavour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, cabbage, horse, radish, clove, pepper, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, cabbage, horse, radish, clove, pepper, allspice. 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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