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To Make Mangoes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

To Make Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut a piece out of the side of each melon and scrape out the pulp.

  2. Use a needle to fasten the piece back to the melon.

  3. Make a pickle with salt and water that will float an egg and pour it over the melons when slightly cool.

  4. Let the melons sit in the pickle for several weeks, scalding the pickle once a week.

  5. Soak the melons in warm water for 2-3 days, changing the water often, then wipe them dry.

  6. Sift and wash the mustard seed, then drain it.

  7. Mix the mustard seed with the horseradish, whole cloves, chopped ginger, mace or nutmeg, and sliced onions.

  8. Fill the melons with the mixture and sew them up.

  9. If you have leftover stuffing, use large cucumbers, cut and scrape them like the melons.

  10. Boil the vinegar with a piece of alum, remove the scum, and pour it over the cucumbers while hot.

  11. Cover the cucumbers tightly.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Horseradish + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (melon, tea, mustard, horseradish, clove, ginger, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against melon, tea, mustard, horseradish, clove, ginger, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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