Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Indian Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Wash the vegetables with vinegar and dry them.
Spread the vegetables on large dishes and sprinkle with salt.
Leave for 24 hours.
Carefully dry the vegetables and place them in a large jar.
Pickle
Boil enough vinegar to cover the vegetables.
For each quart of vinegar, add 1½ tablespoons of curry powder and 1 ounce of mustard seed.
Pour the boiling vinegar over the vegetables.
Once cooled, seal the jar and let it sit for at least 12 hours.
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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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating their flavour before pickling.
- Vinegar
- Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy taste.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the warm, spiced aroma and flavour that defines the pickle.
- Mustard seed
- Adds a pungent, nutty bite and texture to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Drying the vegetables before the jar. Any remaining surface water dilutes the vinegar and can let the pickle spoil or turn soft, so the vegetables should be dried thoroughly before they go into the jar.
“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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