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Indian Pickle

A vinegar-based pickle of vegetables, spices, and herbs, left to sit, dry, and jarred with vinegar.

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

Prepare the vegetables

  1. In a large bowl, combine vinegar, turmeric, and Cayenne pepper.

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

  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 pickle

  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, horseradish, and ginger.

  3. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables.

  4. To replenish, add more vinegar, turmeric, and Cayenne pepper as needed.

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
Acidifies the brine, preserving the vegetables and giving the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture from the vegetables, firming them and concentrating their flavour before drying.
Turmeric
Provides the yellow colour and a warm, earthy aroma to the pickle.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat to the pickle, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, slightly bitter flavour and aroma that complements the vegetables.
Cucumbers
Form the crisp, mild bulk of the pickle, absorbing the vinegar brine.

The step that matters

Draining and drying the salted vegetables. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. If excess liquid is not drained daily, the vegetables can become soggy and dilute the brine, and under-drying leaves moisture that can spoil the pickle in the jar.

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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