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Piccalilli

Piccalilli is a pickled relish made from green tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Piccalilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the vegetables finely.

  2. Sprinkle 1 cup of coarse sea salt over the chopped vegetables and let them stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain the vegetables.

Cook

  1. Add vinegar and sugar to the drained vegetables.

  2. Boil the mixture for thirty minutes.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 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. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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 bulk of the relish and a tart, fresh flavor.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and moisture to the relish.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crunchy texture to the relish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its sharp, tangy flavor and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Onions
Contribute aroma and savory flavor to the relish.

The step that matters

Salting and draining overnight. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables by osmosis. Draining well removes that liquid, which keeps the relish crisp and stops it from diluting the vinegar and sugar when boiled.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, cabbage, vinegar, pepper, 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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