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Higdom Pickles

A pickled cabbage and vegetable mixture with mustard seed, cinnamon, cloves, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Higdom Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Mix chopped cabbage and salt, then let it stand for 24 hours.

  2. Squeeze out the juice from the cabbage.

Combine and cover

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, onions, red peppers, and combine with mustard seed, cinnamon, and cloves.

  2. Put all ingredients together and cover with vinegar.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and, once salted and drained, gives it a firm, crisp texture.
Salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, firming it and helping it keep.
Green tomatoes
Provide the main body of the pickle, with a tart flavor and firm texture.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving it and giving the pickle its sharp tang.

The step that matters

Squeeze out the juice from the cabbage. Salted cabbage releases a lot of liquid. If it is not well drained, the excess water dilutes the vinegar and leaves the pickle watery and less crisp.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, mustard, onion, cinnamon, pepper, clove, 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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