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Hyden Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage, green tomatoes, peppers, onions, spices, brown sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Hyden Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine cabbage, green tomatoes, peppers, and onions in a large bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let drain overnight.

Season and cook

  1. In a separate bowl, mix mustard, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, celery seed, turmeric, and brown sugar.

  2. Add the spice mixture to the drained vegetables and mix well.

  3. Cover the mixture with vinegar and boil until tender.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and softens into a tender, crisp-to-soft texture when boiled.
Green tomatoes
Add firm body and tartness that balances the sweetness of the brown sugar.
Onions
Contribute savory flavor and moisture that blends into the pickling liquid.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving the vegetables and giving the pickle its sharp tang.
Mixed mustard
Adds pungency and aroma that carries through the simmered vegetables.

The step that matters

Draining the salted vegetables overnight. Salt draws water out of the cabbage, tomatoes, peppers and onions by osmosis. If they are not drained well, excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and spice mixture, leaving the pickle watery and less flavorful.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, onion, mustard, ginger, cinnamon, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, onion, mustard, ginger, cinnamon, clove. 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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