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Turmeric Pickles

A pickled vegetable mixture flavored with turmeric, mustard seed, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Turmeric Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the chopped cabbage, green tomatoes, and onions.

  2. Let the mixture sit overnight.

  3. In the morning, press out the water from the vegetables.

  4. Add the sliced pickled cucumbers and chopped red peppers to the mixture.

Pickle and seal

  1. Boil the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, and turmeric powder for about 5 minutes.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the pickles 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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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 holds its crisp texture under the brine.
Green tomatoes
Adds firm body and tartness that holds its shape in the pickle.
Onions
Contributes savory flavour and aroma as they soften in the brine.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Turmeric powder
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a mild, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Press out the water from the vegetables. Salting draws water out of the cabbage, tomatoes and onions. If that water is not pressed away, the pickle stays watery and dilutes the vinegar brine, so it keeps less well and turns soft.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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