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Indian Pickle

A preserved mixture of ginger, garlic, cabbage, and spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 139 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Indian Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ginger and garlic

  1. Shape and wash the ginger.

  2. Cut the ginger into thin slices.

  3. Soak the ginger in saltwater overnight.

  4. Lay the ginger on a dish and sprinkle salt over it.

  5. Let the ginger stand until ready.

  6. Cut the garlic into bits.

  7. Soak the garlic in salt for three days.

  8. Wash, drain and dry the garlic.

Prepare the cabbage and vegetables

  1. Boil the summer cabbages in saltwater for 15 minutes.

  2. Cut the cabbages into quarters and drain them.

  3. Sprinkle finely minced beef suet over the cabbage and let it sit for 12 hours.

  4. Pull the cabbage into small bits.

  5. Dry the cabbage bits in the sun or by the fire.

  6. Boil cauliflower, celery, French beans, and sliced horseradish in saltwater.

  7. Dry the boiled vegetables in the sun or by the fire.

Make the spiced vinegar and pack the jar

  1. Finely bruise the mustard seed and turmeric.

  2. Mix the bruised mustard seed and turmeric with long pepper and allspice.

  3. Boil this mixture with the strong vinegar.

  4. Add the common vinegar to the mixture.

  5. Pour the hot vinegar over the dried vegetables in a jar.

  6. If the vinegar reduces after three weeks, top it up with more vinegar.

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 + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Garlic + horseradishtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together719 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Garlic
Its pungent flavour mellows during the long salt soak, adding aroma to the pickle.
Summer cabbages
Boiling and drying firm the cabbage so it keeps its texture in the vinegar.
Fresh beef suet
Adds richness and fat that softens the sharp vinegar and salt.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent flavour that stands up to the sharp vinegar.
Strong vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and carries the spices.
White ginger
Salt soaking and drying give the slices a firm texture and sharp aroma.

The step that matters

Drying the boiled and sliced vegetables before adding vinegar. Wet vegetables dilute the hot vinegar and leave extra moisture in the jar, which can weaken the preserving acidity and invite spoilage. Thorough drying keeps the vinegar strong and the pickle firm.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, cabbage, beef, cauliflower, celery, beans, horseradish):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, cabbage, beef, cauliflower, celery, beans, horseradish. 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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