Skip to main content
Main

Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, horseradish, beans, tomatoes, mustard seeds, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower 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 ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine cucumbers, green peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, horseradish, green beans, and green tomatoes in a large bowl.

  2. Let the mixture sit in a strong brine for 24 hours, then drain for 3 hours.

Season and pickle

  1. Sprinkle in black and white mustard seeds and ground pepper.

  2. Add enough vinegar to cover and bring to a boil, adding a little alum.

  3. Once cooled, mix in ground mustard and cover with cider vinegar.

  4. Add turmeric to achieve desired color.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main crunchy texture and fresh bulk of the pickle.
Cauliflower
Adds firm, crisp pieces that hold their shape through the pickling.
White cabbage
Contributes crunch and body that stays firm in the vinegar brine.
Onions
Add savory depth and a sharp flavour that mellows during pickling.
Black mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp aroma and heat that develops in the vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Bringing the vinegar to a boil with alum. Boiling the vinegar softens and sterilises the mixture while alum helps vegetables stay firm and crisp instead of turning soft. Adding the mustard and turmeric only after cooling protects their flavour and colour from heat loss.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, horseradish, green beans, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, horseradish, green beans, tomato. 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.

More mixed pickles recipes

English 3 See all 133 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipesGreen Pea SoupGreen Pea Soup181 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes