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Mustard Pickles

A pickled mixture of cauliflower, onions, nasturtiums, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and peppers in a mustard-flavored brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mustard Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine equal quantities of cauliflower, small onions, nasturtiums, sliced green tomatoes, small cucumbers, and beans in a bowl.

  2. Cover the vegetables with strong salt and water.

  3. Scald the brine at night.

  4. Pour the scalded brine over the vegetables in the morning, dissolving a small piece of alum in the brine.

  5. When the brine is cold, drain the vegetables thoroughly.

Make the vinegar mixture

  1. In a pot, combine 1 gallon of vinegar and 1 cup of brown sugar.

  2. Scald the vinegar and sugar mixture well.

  3. Stir in 3 tablespoons of flour and ¼ pound of ground mustard until well mixed.

  4. Add a little turmeric, allspice, cloves, and 1 pint of grated horseradish to the mixture.

  5. Chop up ½ dozen small red peppers.

  6. Mix the chopped peppers with the vegetables.

  7. Pour the scalded vinegar mixture over the vegetables and peppers.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Cucumber + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 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

Cauliflower
Forms the firm, crisp bulk of the pickle that holds up to brining.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Flour
Thickens the vinegar mixture into a smooth, sauce-like coating.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent flavor and helps thicken the sauce around the vegetables.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables during brining, leaving them firmer.

The step that matters

Scalding the vinegar and flour mixture well. Flour thickens only when heated enough to swell its starch. If the mixture is not scalded thoroughly, the sauce stays thin and can taste raw or floury.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, tomato, cucumber, beans, vinegar, sugar, flour):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, tomato, cucumber, beans, vinegar, sugar, flour. 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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