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Pickle Hash

A pickled mixture of cabbage, celery, horseradish, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and peppers, preserved in vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickle Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Chop the cabbage, celery, horseradish, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and peppers.

  2. Mix the chopped vegetables together.

  3. Layer the vegetables 2 inches deep in a crock. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of salt between layers until all vegetables are used.

  4. Let the layered vegetables stand for 24 hours.

  5. Drain and press out all liquid. Cover the vegetables with boiling water and let stand for 10 minutes.

  6. Press out all moisture with your hands.

Pickle and jar

  1. Bring the vinegar to a boil. Add ½ teaspoon of powdered alum to every quart of boiling vinegar and dissolve.

  2. Layer the vegetables in a jar. Sprinkle mustard seed, black pepper, and horseradish between layers.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the vegetables. Ensure the vegetables are well covered.

  4. Cover tightly and let stand for a few days.

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. Horseradish + cucumbertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the hash and gives it a firm, crisp bite.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body that holds up through pickling.
Cucumbers
Contribute crunch and fresh moisture to the mix.
Spanish onions
Add sharp, savory flavour that mellows during pickling.
Powdered alum
Helps the vegetables stay firm and crisp in the brine.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.

The step that matters

Pressing out the moisture before jarring. Salt draws water out of the vegetables, but any liquid left behind dilutes the vinegar and can weaken the pickle and encourage spoilage. Thorough draining and pressing keeps the brine strong and the texture firm.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, celery, horseradish, tomato, cucumber, pepper, cider):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, horseradish, tomato, cucumber, pepper, cider. 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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