Skip to main content
Main

Higdion Pickle

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and spices in cold vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Higdion Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine green tomatoes, cabbage, and onions in a jar.

  2. Sprinkle salt lightly over each layer.

  3. Let it sit for 24 hours.

  4. Press the mixture in a towel to extract all the juice.

Pickle

  1. Return the mixture to the jar and cover with cold vinegar.

  2. Let it sit for 2 to 3 days.

  3. Drain the vinegar and season the mixture.

  4. Add ground mustard, black pepper, spice, and mace to each gallon. Mix thoroughly and return to the jar.

  5. Cover with cold vinegar, excluding as much air as possible.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 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
Provide the main body and tart flavor of the pickle.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk to the mixture.
Onions
Contribute sharpness and aroma as the pickle matures.
White mustard seed
Adds pungent flavor and a mild heat to the pickle.

The step that matters

Pressing out the juice. Pressing removes excess liquid from the vegetables before vinegar is added. Leftover moisture would dilute the vinegar and weaken the pickle's flavor and keeping quality.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, onion, vinegar, mustard, 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 green tomato pickles recipes

Sweet 20 See all 141 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesRed CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes