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Pickle, Indian

A mixed vegetable pickle made with vinegar, spices, and assorted vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickle, Indian

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut the cabbage into slices and the cauliflowers into small branches. Sprinkle salt over them and let them sit for two days.

Make the pickle

  1. Combine 1 gallon of vinegar with garlic, shallots, horseradish, ginger, black pepper, long pepper, allspice, cloves, cayenne, mustard seed, mustard, and turmeric in a large container.

  2. After two days, dry the cabbage and cauliflower, then add them to the vinegar mixture along with radish pods, French beans, gherkins, pickling onions, nasturtiums, capsicums, and chilies.

  3. Mix well and let the pickle sit for a few days before using.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Garlic + shallottop 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 acidic base that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp heat and aroma that develops as the pickle matures.
Cayenne
Contributes lasting chili heat to the vinegar brine.
Cabbage
Forms the crisp, sliced bulk of the pickle and keeps its texture after brining.
Cauliflowers
Provides firm florets that hold their texture in the spiced vinegar.
Shallots
Adds mild onion-like pungency that mellows during the long sit in vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the salted cabbage and cauliflower. Salt draws water out of the vegetables over two days. If they are not dried well before going into the vinegar, excess moisture dilutes the brine and can weaken its acidity and keeping quality.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, shallot, horseradish, ginger, pepper, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, shallot, horseradish, ginger, pepper, allspice. 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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