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Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of cabbage, green tomatoes, and onions flavored with vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbage, green tomatoes, and onions very fine and mix well.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of salt and let the mixture stand until the next day.

  3. Press the mixture well to remove excess liquid.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. In a pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, and all spices.

  2. Boil the mixture for half an hour.

Combine and serve

  1. Mix the boiled vinegar and spices with the chopped vegetables.

  2. The pickles are ready for use immediately.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 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

Cabbage
Provides the bulk of the pickle and a crisp, sturdy texture once salted and pressed.
Green tomatoes
Add tart body and firm texture to the mixed pickle.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma to the chopped vegetable base.
Pure cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and rounds out the spices.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that fills the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Pressing the salted vegetables. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables. Pressing removes that excess liquid so the pickle stays crisp and does not dilute the hot spiced vinegar.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, cider, vinegar, ginger, clove, mustard):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, cider, vinegar, ginger, clove, 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.

More mixed pickles recipes

English 3 See all 133 →

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