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Mustard Pickle

A mixed vegetable pickle made with cucumbers, tomatoes, cauliflower, onions, peppers, mustard, turmeric, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mustard Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

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

  2. Make a brine with 4 quarts of water and 1 cup of coarse sea salt; pour over the vegetables and let soak for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the vegetables and heat just enough to scald them.

Make the mustard sauce

  1. In a separate bowl, mix flour, ground mustard, and turmeric with enough cold vinegar to make a smooth paste.

  2. Add 1 cup of sugar and enough vinegar to bring the total to 2 quarts.

  3. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens.

Combine and finish

  1. Add the vegetables and cook until heated through.

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 + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Flour
Thickens the mustard sauce into a smooth, thick paste when heated.
Ground mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickles their characteristic yellow color.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickles and sharpens the flavor.
Cauliflower
Adds firm, crisp texture that holds up in the thick sauce.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens. Flour thickens only when heated, and it can scorch or form lumps on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened before the vegetables are added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, pepper, flour, mustard, turmeric):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, pepper, flour, mustard, turmeric. 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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