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Spanish Pickle

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, cabbage, onions, peppers, and spices in vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Spanish Pickle

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Remove seeds from cucumbers and red peppers, then grind them together.

  2. Add coarse sea salt and let the mixture stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, squeeze out the excess water.

Make and seal the pickles

  1. Add white mustard seed, celery seed, turmeric, ground mustard, brown sugar, and vinegar.

  2. Boil the mixture together and pour it over the ground vegetables.

  3. Cook for two minutes and seal the jars.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the bulk of the pickle, and their water is drawn out by salt before cooking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavor.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crisp texture to the pickle.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Squeeze out the excess water in the morning. Salt draws water out of the vegetables overnight. If the excess water is not squeezed out, the pickle will be diluted and watery, weakening both its texture and the strength of the vinegar brine.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, pepper, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar. 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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