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Pickled Vegetables

A preserved vegetable mix of beans, elder shoots, apples, cucumbers, spices, mustard seed, turmeric, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 vegetables

  1. Salt and drain the beans, elder shoots, apples, and cucumbers, then dry them in the sun.

  2. Pour boiling vinegar over the cucumbers and drain after 12 hours without adding salt.

Make the pickling liquor

  1. In a large stone jar, combine spices, garlic, mustard seed, and enough vinegar for the quantity of vegetables.

  2. Add turmeric and prepare for the dried vegetables.

  3. Ensure the vinegar is scalded and cooled before adding spices.

  4. For every gallon of vinegar, mix in 2 ounces of mustard flour gradually with a little hot vinegar.

Pickle and seal

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

  2. The next day, remove the vegetables, drain them, and place them in a large stock jar.

  3. Boil the vinegar and pour it over more vegetables, letting them sit overnight.

  4. Repeat until all vegetables are cleaned.

  5. Seal the jar tightly.

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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Beans + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together419 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

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the vegetables, firming them and helping them keep their crispness.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that gives the pickle its characteristic bite.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a warm, earthy aroma.
Boiling vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens their flavour.

The step that matters

Salting and drying the vegetables. Salt draws water out of the vegetables, and drying them in the sun removes more moisture. If vegetables stay wet, the vinegar is diluted and the pickle can soften or spoil more easily.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, cucumber, vinegar, mustard, 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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