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To Make Mangoes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Make Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut a slice from the melon large enough to remove the seeds.

  2. Place the melons in brine and scald as directed.

  3. Fill the melons with prepared cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, and onions.

  4. Season the filling with spices, horseradish, and mustard to taste.

  5. Replace the slice you cut out and stitch it closed.

  6. When ready to serve, remove the stitches and place on the table.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Swap the horseradish

The recipe marks horseradish as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (melon, cucumber, beans, tomato, onion, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits about as well
  3. Horseradishthe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against melon, cucumber, beans, tomato, onion, mustard, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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