Skip to main content
Main

Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, and tomatoes seasoned with mustard seeds, spices, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the peppers finely.

  2. Slice the cabbage finely.

  3. Cut the beans into 1-inch pieces.

  4. Slice the tomatoes.

Brine and drain

  1. Let the mixture stand in strong brine for 24 hours.

  2. Drain for 3 hours.

Pickle and can

  1. Sprinkle in the black mustard seed, mixed spices, brown sugar, white mustard seed, and black ground pepper.

  2. Add enough vinegar to cover the mixture and bring it to a boil. Can while hot.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the pickles.
Cabbage
Forms the crisp, firm body of the pickle mix.
Cauliflower
Adds firm texture and bulk to the pickle mix.
Black mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent aroma and bite.

The step that matters

Drain for 3 hours after the brine. Draining removes the salty brine and excess water. If the vegetables stay wet, they dilute the vinegar and the pickle can turn soft and weakly flavored.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, mustard, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipesGreen Pea SoupGreen Pea Soup181 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes