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Spanish Pickles

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel, remove the seeds, and slice the cucumbers lengthwise into finger-sized pieces.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in salt water overnight.

  3. Chop the cabbage and tomatoes finely, then sprinkle with salt at a ratio of 1 pint to 1 peck.

  4. Let the cabbage and tomato mixture stand overnight, then squeeze out the brine.

Cook and pack

  1. Combine all ingredients in a kettle and stir until it boils.

  2. Pack the mixture into airtight cans or bottles.

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 + 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. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 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

Cucumbers
Provide the bulk and crisp texture of the pickle after salting firms them.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crunchy texture that holds up through the cooking.
Green tomatoes
Add bulk and tartness that balances the sweet and sour brine.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the pickle its sharp flavor and helps preserve it.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, aromatic flavor that gives the pickle its characteristic bite.

The step that matters

Squeezing out the brine from the cabbage and tomato mixture. Salt draws water out of the vegetables and firms them. If the mixture is not squeezed well, the leftover liquid dilutes the vinegar and softens the texture, so the pickle can turn watery and less crisp.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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