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Indian Pickle

A mixed vegetable pickle made with a vinegar brine and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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 ↓

Indian Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut away outer leaves of the vegetables.

  2. Shred the cabbage.

  3. String the beans.

  4. Skin the onions.

  5. Slice the beetroot.

  6. Scrape the carrots.

  7. Make a strong brine that can float an egg.

  8. Add the prepared vegetables to the brine.

  9. Boil the mixture for 1 minute.

  10. Drain the vegetables.

  11. Shake the vegetables in a soft cloth to dry them.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Boil 2 quarts of vinegar with ginger, long pepper, black peppercorns, and garlic for 5 minutes.

  2. Mix turmeric and mustard flour with a little cold vinegar.

  3. Stir the mixture into the boiling vinegar.

Pack and keep

  1. Combine the vegetables thoroughly and place them in an unglazed jar.

  2. Pour the boiling vinegar over the vegetables to completely cover them.

  3. Cover the jar closely and store in a cool place.

  4. Add seasonal vegetables.

  5. Boil and dry the seasonal vegetables.

  6. Add the boiled and dried seasonal vegetables to the pickle.

  7. As the vinegar is absorbed, add more boiled and cooled vinegar to keep the vegetables 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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cucumber + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together345 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beetroot + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together215 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard flour
Adds pungent heat and sharpness to the spiced vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy, warm aroma.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables in the brine, helping them stay firm and crisp.
Black peppercorns
Contribute pungent aroma and warmth to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the vegetables before packing. Any water left on the vegetables dilutes the vinegar and can encourage spoilage, so they should be dried thoroughly before going into the jar.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, beetroot, beans, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, beetroot, beans, 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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