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Pickled Mangoes

Pickled mangoes preserved in a brine with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Soak the mangoes in a strong brine for two weeks.

  2. Soak them in pure water for two days, changing the water two or three times.

  3. Remove the seeds and layer grape leaves and mangoes in a kettle, covering with leaves.

  4. Add the alum and pour vinegar over the mangoes, then boil for 10-15 minutes.

  5. Remove the leaves and let the pickles sit in the vinegar for a week.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the ginger, black pepper, mace, allspice, turmeric, garlic, horseradish, black mustard seed, and white mustard seed with olive oil.

  2. Add 2 teaspoons of brown sugar to each mango.

  3. Combine the chopped cabbage, small onions, cucumbers, green tomatoes, and chopped imperfect mangoes with the spice mixture.

Stuff and store

  1. Stuff the mangoes with the mixture and tie them.

  2. Place them in a stone jar and cover with cider vinegar.

  3. Store in a bright, dry place until canned.

  4. After a month, add 3 pounds of brown sugar, adjusting to taste.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mango + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mangoes
Form the main body of the pickle and absorb the brine, vinegar and spiced filling.
Alum
Firms the fruit so it holds its texture during boiling and pickling.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the fruit and sharpens the flavour of the pickle.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp pungency and flavour that mellows during the long pickling period.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and spices.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and flavour to the spiced filling.

The step that matters

Boiling the mangoes with alum and vinegar. Boiling for only 10-15 minutes is brief; alum firms the fruit's pectin-rich tissue so it does not turn soft, and the vinegar must fully cover the fruit to keep it preserved.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric, garlic):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric, garlic. 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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