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Preserve

Catsup, Creole.

A pickled vegetable preserve with cucumbers, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Catsup, Creole.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers and cabbage

  1. Peel and cut the cucumbers.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let stand for 6 hours.

  4. Drain the cucumbers.

  5. Scald them in vinegar.

  6. Peel and cut the cabbage.

  7. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  8. Let stand for 6 hours.

Prepare the remaining vegetables

  1. Chop the onions.

  2. Cover with boiling water.

  3. Let stand for 30 minutes.

  4. Chop the green tomatoes, green beans, and green pepper.

  5. Combine all vegetables with the young corn in a preserve kettle.

  6. Scald the mixture.

  7. Drain the mixture.

Pickle and store

  1. Mix the grated horseradish, ground mustard, white mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, cinnamon, cayenne, olive oil, and sugar.

  2. Put the mixture in a jar with the prepared vegetables.

  3. Cover with boiling vinegar.

  4. Store in a cool, dry place.

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 + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + green beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together95 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + green beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together113 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Their firm flesh stays crisp through salting and scalding, giving the pickle its crunch.
Vinegar
Its acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Cabbage
Its sturdy leaves hold texture through brining and add bulk to the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustards with sweetness.
White mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp bite and contributes to the pickle's aroma.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour and a mild earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Salting the cucumbers and cabbage for 6 hours. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. Draining after the full standing time removes that water so the pickle stays crisp and the brine is not diluted.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, cabbage, tomato, green beans, pepper, corn):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, cabbage, tomato, green beans, pepper, corn. 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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