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Mustard Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture flavored with mustard, turmeric, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,279 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mustard Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil cucumbers, onions, green tomatoes, small tomatoes, peppers, and cabbage in cold water until tender; then drain overnight.

Make the dressing

  1. In a porcelain kettle, combine 3 quarts vinegar with 1 quart vinegar, turmeric, ground mustard, sugar, and flour.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

Combine

  1. Pour the dressing over the drained vegetables and stir to combine.

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. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve the vegetables.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Flour
Starch thickens the dressing as it heats, so it coats the vegetables.
Ground mustard
Contributes the pungent, sharp flavour typical of mustard pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour and a mild, earthy flavour.
Cucumbers
Form the bulk of the pickle, giving it body and texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the dressing until it thickens. Flour starch only thickens fully when heated enough to swell and gelatinise. If it is undercooked, the dressing stays thin or lumpy and tastes raw and floury.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, pepper, cabbage, vinegar, turmeric, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, pepper, cabbage, vinegar, turmeric, 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.

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