Name: Mixed Pickles
Ingredients: 300 small cucumbers; 4 green peppers, sliced fine; 2 large or 3 small heads cauliflower; 3 heads white cabbage, shaved fine; 9 large onions, sliced; 1 large root horseradish

Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

300 small cucumbers
4 green peppers, sliced fine
2 large or 3 small heads cauliflower
3 heads white cabbage, shaved fine
9 large onions, sliced
1 large root horseradish

Directions

Prepare

Wash and prepare the cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, and horseradish.
Combine all the vegetables in a large bowl.

Rest

Let the mixture sit for a few hours to allow flavors to meld.

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.

Cucumber + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together584 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together139 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together305 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together640 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together481 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers: Provide the crisp, crunchy body that stays firm in the pickle.
Cauliflower: Adds firm, crisp texture and absorbs the surrounding flavors.
White cabbage: Contributes crunch and bulk, holding its texture through the pickling rest.
Onions: Add pungent flavor that mellows and sweetens as the mixture rests.
Horseradish: Adds sharp, pungent heat that gives the pickle its bite.

Swap the onion

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

Mustardfits better
Broccolifits better
Radishfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, horseradish. 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.