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French Pickle

A pickled mix of green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, celery, and peppers in a vinegar and mustard dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

French Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, cabbage, and onions, then salt and drain them overnight.

  2. Add the chopped celery and peppers.

Make the dressing and pour

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, ground mustard, cayenne pepper, turmeric powder, and dissolved cornstarch.

  2. Cook the dressing for 5 minutes after it reaches a boil.

  3. Pour the hot dressing 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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the dressing so it coats the vegetables instead of running off.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Green tomatoes
Supply the bulk of the pickle and release moisture that the salting draws out.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk to the pickle.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing for 5 minutes after it reaches a boil. Cornstarch must reach a full boil and be cooked through to thicken properly; undercooked starch stays cloudy and leaves a raw starchy taste. Pouring the dressing hot also helps it penetrate the vegetables.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, celery, 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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