Skip to main content
Main

Indian Pickle, or Piccalilli

A fermented pickle made with vinegar, spices, and assorted vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Indian Pickle, or Piccalilli

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infused vinegar

  1. In a jar, combine vinegar, ginger, long pepper, shallots, garlic, salt, turmeric, cayenne, and mustard flour.

  2. Seal the jar and let it infuse in a warm place for one week.

Pickle the vegetables

  1. Prepare the vegetables: sprinkle cabbage, cauliflowers, turnip radishes, French beans, cucumbers, onions, codling apples, carrot slices, capsicums, and bird pepper with plenty of salt.

  2. Mix well in a large earthen vessel or pour scalding brine over them.

  3. Let the mixture sit for four days, turning it often.

  4. After four days, wash the vegetables in vinegar and dry them carefully with a cloth.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Shallot + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the vegetables and carries the flavours of the spices.
Sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables and helps keep the pickle preserved.
Turmeric
Adds a yellow colour and earthy, bitter flavour to the pickle.
Mustard flour
Adds a sharp, pungent heat and flavour to the vinegar.
White ginger
Contributes a warm, aromatic pungency to the infused vinegar.
Cabbage
Forms the firm, crisp body of the pickle, which keeps its texture in the brine.

The step that matters

Turning the mixture often over four days. Salt and acid must penetrate every piece evenly; turning keeps the vegetables submerged and in contact with the brine, so none spoil or soften unevenly.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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

More indian pickle recipes

East 23West 7 See all 56 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesRed CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipes