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Pickles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare equal quantities of the vegetables listed.

  2. Shred or break up larger vegetables.

  3. Boil all vegetables for 1 minute in strong brine.

  4. Lift them out and spread on large dishes to dry in the sun.

  5. If adding vegetables in batches, scald each in brine, dry, then scald in boiling vinegar before adding to the rest.

  6. Mix a smooth paste with warm vinegar and add mustard, but do not boil again.

  7. Let the mixture cool, then pour it over the prepared vegetables.

  8. Pack the mixture into wide-mouthed bottles, dividing the spices evenly.

  9. Ensure the contents are well covered with vinegar and check for additional vinegar 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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Capsicum + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,520 recipes

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

  3. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, capsicum, cucumber, beans, tomato, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, capsicum, cucumber, beans, tomato, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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