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Chopped Pickles

Pickles made from chopped green tomatoes and cabbage, seasoned with vinegar, sugar, spices, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chopped Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine chopped green tomatoes and cabbage in separate bowls.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight or for several hours.

  3. Press out all the juice.

Make and jar the pickles

  1. In a granite pan, mix the vegetables with vinegar, sugar, mixed spices, and black pepper.

  2. Heat thoroughly, then pack into jars and seal.

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

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + cabbagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together333 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the main bulk and tart flavour of the pickle.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and body to the pickle.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that sharpens the pickle and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar and the green tomatoes.
Coarse sea salt
Draws juice out of the vegetables, firming their texture before pickling.

The step that matters

Pressing out all the juice. Salt draws water out of the vegetables, and any liquid left behind dilutes the vinegar and can make the pickle watery and less stable in the jar. Removing it well keeps the texture firm and the brine strong.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar, sugar, pepper):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, sugar, pepper. 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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