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Pickles, Vinegar, & C

A pickled vegetable mixture preserved in vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and ginger 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 ↓

Pickles, Vinegar, & C

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Gather gherkins, French beans, and radish pods when dry.

  2. Remove blossoms and stalks from the vegetables.

  3. Sprinkle a handful of coarse sea salt over the vegetables. Stir frequently until the vegetables are wet.

  4. Drain the vegetables in a colander.

  5. Place the drained vegetables in jars.

Pickle in vinegar

  1. Pour boiling vinegar over the vegetables to cover them completely.

  2. Let the jars sit away from heat for 3-4 days.

Green and simmer

  1. Transfer the vinegar and pickles to a saucepan.

  2. Cover the saucepan with vine leaves to trap steam.

  3. When the vine leaves turn yellow, replace them with fresh ones. Continue replacing leaves until the pickles are a good green.

  4. Gradually increase the heat until the mixture simmers. Do not let the mixture boil.

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. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Turmeric + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Its acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickles their sharp, tangy flavour.
Mustard flour
Adds sharp, pungent heat that flavours the pickling liquid.
Turmeric
Gives the pickling liquid its yellow colour and an earthy flavour.
Sliced ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.
Long pepper
Contributes a warm, lingering spiciness to the brine.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without boiling. Boiling would soften the vegetables and dull their green colour. Gentle heating keeps the pickles firm and bright while the flavours infuse.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, flour, turmeric, ginger, pepper, clove. 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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