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Sweet Mango Pickles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Mango Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place half-ripe cantaloupes in brine for ten days, turning them daily.

  2. Soak the cantaloupes in fresh water overnight, then peel and remove seeds.

  3. Pour boiling water over the cantaloupes to draw out salt, then soak in strong alum water to firm them.

  4. Afterward, place them in cold water.

  5. For stuffing, mix sliced cantaloupe with white mustard seed, coriander seed, turmeric, and sugar.

  6. Stuff the cantaloupes and preserve them in sweetened vinegar with stick cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and mace.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cinnamon + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turmeric + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, mustard, turmeric, nutmeg):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, mustard, turmeric, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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