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Old Virginia Mixed Pickle

A pickled vegetable mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, and spices preserved in vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Old Virginia Mixed Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the green tomatoes and large white onions.

  2. Cut the cabbage as for slaw.

  3. Cut the cucumbers into quarters if small.

  4. Mix the vegetables in a jar, adding salt as you go.

  5. Let them stand for 24 hours.

  6. Drain off the water that rises.

  7. Wash the pickles with clear water.

  8. Add the small whole onions that have been soaking in salt water for 24 hours.

Press and season

  1. Pour equal parts water and vinegar over the pickles.

  2. Let them stand for a day or two.

  3. Place the pickles in a cotton bag.

  4. Press until no water can be extracted.

  5. Mix the spices with the pickles.

Scald and pack

  1. Boil 1½ gallons of fresh apple vinegar.

  2. Pour the hot vinegar over the pickles.

  3. Repeat this process for three mornings, using the same vinegar each time.

  4. On the third day, add 1½ pounds of sugar to the vinegar.

  5. Put the pickles in a kettle after the vinegar has boiled.

  6. Let it all come to a boil.

  7. Transfer the pickles to jars.

  8. Keep them well covered.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and absorb the brine's flavour as they stand.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture that holds up through the salting and pressing.
White onions
Contribute pungency and sweetness that mellows during long brining.
Cabbage
Adds crunchy bulk that stays firm through the salt curing.
Apple vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and sharpens their flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Pressing out the water. Salted vegetables release water that dilutes the brine and leaves the pickle soft. Pressing until no more liquid comes out keeps the pickles crisp and the vinegar strong enough to preserve them.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, cabbage, horseradish, mustard, pepper, celery):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, cabbage, horseradish, mustard, pepper, celery. 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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