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Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, and horseradish in vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash the tomatoes.

  2. Cut a small piece from each end of the tomatoes.

  3. Slice and chop the tomatoes finely.

  4. Place the tomatoes in a wooden bowl.

  5. Pare, quarter and remove the seeds from the cucumbers.

  6. Cut the cucumbers into very small pieces.

  7. Place the cucumbers in a jar with ½ pint of coarse sea salt.

  8. Let the cucumbers stand overnight.

  9. Peel the onions.

  10. Cut the onions very thin.

  11. Place the onions in a jar with 1 cup of coarse sea salt.

  12. Let the onions stand overnight.

Brine and drain

  1. Drain all vegetables thoroughly and place them in separate jars.

  2. Cover each jar with cold weak vinegar.

  3. Let the vegetables stand for 24 hours.

  4. Drain the vegetables well, pressing hard to extract all juice.

Cook and combine

  1. Place the tomatoes in a porcelain kettle and boil in good vinegar for 3 to 5 minutes.

  2. Let the tomatoes cool, then drain and press out all juice again.

  3. Mix the onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, 4 green peppers, and 1 cup of grated horseradish together.

  4. In a pot, combine 2 quarts of best cider vinegar, 1 heaping pound of brown sugar, and 4 heaping tablespoons of mixed spices.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim the surface.

  6. Pour the hot mixture over the pickles and stir with a wooden or silver spoon.

  7. Place the pickles in cans or gallon jars while hot and seal.

  8. The pickles are ready for use in a day or two.

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

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

  2. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

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

  4. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the pickle and, once salted and pressed, give a firm, chunky texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws juice out of the vegetables through osmosis, firming them and reducing their water content.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth to the syrup.
White onions
Add pungency and bulk, softening in flavour as they are salted and pickled.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that complements the vinegar and sugar.

The step that matters

Pressing out all juice after salting and after boiling. Excess liquid left in the vegetables dilutes the vinegar and sugar syrup, which can weaken the flavour and preservation, and makes the pickles watery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, vinegar, cider, sugar, pepper, horseradish):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, vinegar, cider, sugar, pepper, horseradish. 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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