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Mangoes

A pickled green muskmelon filled with horse-radish, black pepper, spices, and radish pods, then scalded in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the insides of the green muskmelons.

  2. Soak the muskmelons, green tomatoes, little onions, and cucumbers in 1 cup of coarse sea salt overnight.

Fill and pickle

  1. Fill the muskmelons with the mixture of horse-radish, black pepper, spices, and radish pods.

  2. Scald the vinegar or boil it.

  3. Pour the vinegar over the filled muskmelons several times.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 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

Muskmelons
Serve as the vessel that is filled and pickled, carrying the flavour of the brine and spices.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables during the overnight soak, firming them and seasoning them.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickled vegetables.
Horse-radish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that flavours the filling.

The step that matters

Overnight salt soak. Salt must fully penetrate the melons, tomatoes, onions and cucumbers to draw out water and season them evenly. Too short a soak leaves them watery and under-seasoned, while the vinegar then dilutes the brine and weakens preservation.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, horse, radish, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, horse, radish, pepper, vinegar. 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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