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Pickled Vegetables

A method for pickling vegetables using vinegar, mustard seed, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Pickled Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. In a large jar, combine mustard seed, turmeric, and enough vinegar for pickling.

  2. For every gallon of vinegar, mix in 2 ounces of mustard, gradually adding a little boiling vinegar.

Pickle the vegetables

  1. Place some vegetables in a 2‑quart jar and pour 1 quart of boiling vinegar over them.

  2. The next day, remove the vegetables and drain them.

  3. Put the drained vegetables into a large stock jar.

  4. Boil the vinegar again.

  5. Pour the boiled vinegar over more vegetables and let them sit overnight.

  6. Repeat until all vegetables are processed.

Seal and age

  1. Seal the jar tightly; this pickle will be ready in a year, but a small jar can be ready in two weeks.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + turmerictop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidic liquid that preserves and sharpens the vegetables.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that infuses into the vinegar and vegetables.
Turmeric
Gives the pickling liquid its yellow colour and an earthy aroma.
Vegetables
Are the main pickled item, absorbing flavour and colour from the hot vinegar.

The step that matters

Boiling the vinegar before each pour. Hot vinegar penetrates vegetables and drives out air, helping the pickle keep well; vinegar that cools too much may not pickle evenly.

Swap the turmeric

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Turmericthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard. 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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