Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Mango Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mangoes
Peel and partially divide the mangoes to remove the kernels.
Sprinkle the mangoes with salt and let them sit in a large vessel for 24 hours.
Make the pickle
Boil the vinegar and turmeric over low heat for 15 minutes, then remove from heat.
Mix the dry chillies, sliced ginger, mustard seed, and garlic with the mangoes, stuffing some inside.
Pour the vinegar and turmeric mixture over the mangoes, adding more vinegar if needed to cover them.
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.
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Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,776 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,279 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Mango + turmerictop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together256 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Mango + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,053 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Unripe mangoes
- Form the bulk of the pickle, providing firm flesh that holds up to long salting and soaking.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the mangoes and preserves them during the 24-hour rest.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour.
- Ground turmeric
- Adds colour and an earthy, bitter aroma to the vinegar mixture.
- Dry chillies
- Add heat and pungency to the mangoes.
- Mustard seed
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavour and crunch to the pickle.
The step that matters
Covering the mangoes with vinegar. Mangoes exposed to air can spoil and darken, and vinegar acidity only preserves what it fully covers. Adding more vinegar if needed keeps every piece submerged.
Swap the mango
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, turmeric, ginger, mustard, garlic):
- Limefits better
- Lemonfits about as well
- Mangothe original
- Avocadofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, turmeric, ginger, mustard, garlic. 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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