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Spanish Pickle

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, cabbage, onions, and green peppers with mustard, turmeric, celery seed, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Spanish Pickle

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle cucumbers, cabbage, onions, and green peppers with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

  2. In the morning, squeeze out excess liquid.

Make and cook the pickles

  1. Layer the vegetables in a kettle, alternating with the seasoning mixture.

  2. Mix white mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, black mustard seed, Colman mustard, and sugar with vinegar.

  3. Cover the vegetables with the vinegar mixture and boil until the vinegar begins to thicken.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Turmeric + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and holds a firm, crisp texture when cooked briefly.
Cucumbers
Adds crisp texture and fresh flavour that softens only partly during boiling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that flavours and preserves the vegetables.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour to the pickling liquid.
Turmeric
Gives the pickles a yellow colour and a mild, earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Boil until the vinegar begins to thicken. Boiling reduces the vinegar and dissolves the sugar into a syrupy liquid. Stopping too early leaves the pickles thin and watery, while boiling too long makes the liquid overly thick and sticky.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, pepper, mustard, turmeric, celery, 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.

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