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Rummage Pickle

A pickle of mixed tomatoes, peppers, onions, celery, cucumber, and cabbage in vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rummage Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the vegetables.

  2. Cover the chopped vegetables with salt.

  3. Let the salted vegetables stand overnight.

  4. Drain the vegetables well.

Cook and seal

  1. Add vinegar, dark brown sugar, mustard, and pepper to the vegetables.

  2. Cook the mixture for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  3. Seal the pickle in jars.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 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

Green tomatoes
Firm, tart vegetable base that holds its shape and adds bulk to the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the chopped vegetables, firming them and concentrating flavor before cooking.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp taste.
Dark brown sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness and adds depth through its molasses flavor.
Onions
Add savory bulk and sweetness that softens during the long cook.

The step that matters

Drain the vegetables well. Salted vegetables hold a lot of liquid. If excess brine stays in, it dilutes the vinegar and sugar syrup, making the pickle watery and overly salty.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, cabbage, cucumber, vinegar, sugar. 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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