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Mixed Mustard Pickles

Pickles and onions flavored with mustard, turmeric, curry powder, and flour, then dressed with vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,279 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mixed Mustard Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the onions in salt water until tender.

  2. Mix the cooked onions with the pickles thoroughly.

Make and add the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the mustard, turmeric powder, curry powder, and flour.

  2. Add the vinegar to the mixture and scald while stirring constantly.

  3. Pour the hot dressing over the pickles and seal.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Turmeric + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + turmerictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,913 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

Onions
Become tender when cooked, adding body and a mild sweetness to the pickle mix.
Flour
Thickens the mustard dressing so it clings to the pickles instead of running off.
Strong mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the pickle.
Turmeric powder
Adds yellow color and an earthy aroma to the dressing.
Curry powder
Contributes warm spice aroma and flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Scald the dressing while stirring constantly. Flour in the dressing can clump and scorch if left unstirred over heat. Constant stirring keeps it smooth, and heating it thickens the starch so the dressing coats the pickles evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, turmeric, flour, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, turmeric, flour, vinegar. 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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