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Indian Pickle

A preserved vegetable mixture using vinegar, salt, mustard, turmeric, ginger, cloves, mace, and assorted vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 26 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 212 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Indian Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare a large jar for the pickle.

  2. Add vegetables as they come into season, ensuring they are dry.

  3. Avoid boiling; soak vegetables in brine instead.

  4. Tie the jar tightly after each addition of fresh vegetables.

Make the pickle

  1. Combine vinegar, salt, mustard, turmeric, ginger, cloves, and mace for the pickle mixture.

  2. Let the pickle stand for a year before using; it improves with time.

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. Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Cauliflower + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cauliflower + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables and helps keep them firm in the brine.
Flour of mustard
Adds pungent heat and sharpness to the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour and earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Keep vegetables dry and avoid boiling. Adding wet vegetables dilutes the vinegar and brine, weakening preservation, while boiling softens the vegetables and drives off flavour. Soaking them in brine keeps them crisp and the pickle safe to store.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, cucumber, beans, turnip, radish):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, cucumber, beans, turnip, radish. 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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