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Chopped Pickles

A pickled mixture of chopped tomatoes, cabbage, limes, peppers, mustard seed, horseradish, and cayenne pepper in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chopped Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Wash and clean the tomatoes. Cut away a small piece from each end of the tomatoes.

  2. Slice and chop the tomatoes finely in a large bowl.

  3. Mix the chopped tomatoes with ½ pint of coarse sea salt. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

  4. Drain the tomatoes thoroughly.

Prepare the cabbage and limes

  1. Chop the cabbage and limes in the same proportions.

  2. Mix the chopped cabbage and limes with salt. Add enough water to moisten the mixture.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

  4. Drain the mixture well.

Cook and pack

  1. In a porcelain kettle, combine the tomatoes and vinegar. Boil the mixture for 3 minutes while stirring.

  2. Pour the mixture out and let it cool.

  3. Wring and press the tomatoes in a towel until perfectly dry.

  4. Mix the dry tomatoes with the cabbage.

  5. Layer the mixture in a dry crock, alternating with chopped peppers, mustard seed, horseradish, and cayenne pepper.

  6. Cover with strong cider vinegar mixed with 1 teacup of sugar per gallon. Place a saucer or pieces of broken china on top to keep the pickles submerged.

  7. If a white scum forms, drain the vinegar. Boil the vinegar. Skim the vinegar. Pour the hot vinegar over the pickles.

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. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Lime + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle; salting draws out water so they stay crisp.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the vegetables and helps preserve them.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk, giving the pickle its firm texture.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickles.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, aromatic bite to the pickle.

The step that matters

Drying the tomatoes before packing. Tomatoes that stay wet dilute the vinegar and soften the pickle. Wringing them dry in a towel keeps the texture crisp and the brine strong.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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