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Indian Pickle

A mixed-vegetable pickle made with vinegar, turmeric, Cayenne pepper, and assorted vegetables, sun-dried and layered with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 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

Brine the vegetables

  1. Mix vinegar, turmeric, and Cayenne pepper in a large bowl.

  2. Add gherkins, cucumbers, melons, apples, beans, radish pods, nasturtium buds, capsicum, cauliflower, onions, elder buds, cabbage, and lemons to the mixture.

  3. Sprinkle a handful of coarse sea salt over the vegetables and let them sit for 3–4 days, draining excess liquid daily.

Dry and pack

  1. Spread the vegetables on a dish and dry them in the sun or near a fire until shriveled.

  2. In a large jar, layer the dried vegetables with mustard seed, garlic, horse-radish, and ginger.

  3. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables.

  4. Add more vinegar, turmeric, and Cayenne pepper as needed to replenish.

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. Cucumber + melontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Turmeric + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together419 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Turmeric + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Turmeric + peppertop 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

Vinegar
Provides the acidic liquid that preserves the pickle and carries the flavour.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
Cucumbers
Form the crisp, watery vegetable base that soaks up the brine's flavour.
Cauliflower
Adds firm texture and absorbs the vinegar and spice mixture.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that deepens as the pickle matures.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and sharpness to the packed vegetables.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the vegetables. Salt draws water out of the vegetables through osmosis, firming their texture and reducing dilution of the vinegar. Draining the released liquid daily keeps the vegetables from becoming soggy and the brine from weakening.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, turmeric, pepper, cucumber, melon, beans, radish):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, turmeric, pepper, cucumber, melon, beans, 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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