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Mixed Pickles

A pickled vegetable mixture of tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and cucumbers in a seasoned vinegar and flour coating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and turmeric 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 ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and cucumbers.

  2. Let the sliced vegetables stand in weak brine for three days.

  3. Drain the vegetables for twenty-four hours.

Make the pickling liquor

  1. Boil enough vinegar to cover the vegetables.

  2. Add mustard and turmeric to the boiling vinegar.

  3. Season with black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste.

  4. Mix the flour with cold vinegar and pour it into the hot vinegar.

  5. Let the mixture boil, then pour it over the pickles.

  6. Add sugar if desired.

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. Mustard + turmerictop 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. Tomato + cucumbertop 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

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and soften into the vinegar as it stands.
Cabbage
Adds firm texture that holds up through brining and pickling.
Cucumbers
Contribute crisp texture and fresh body to the mixed pickle.
Onions
Add sharp aroma and savory flavour that mellows during pickling.
Flour
Thickens the hot vinegar into a binding sauce that coats the vegetables.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sour flavour.

The step that matters

Pour the flour and vinegar mixture into the hot vinegar. Flour mixed with cold vinegar must be stirred smooth before it meets the boiling liquid, otherwise it forms lumps. Letting the mixture boil fully then cooks out the raw starch taste and thickens the sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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