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Indian Pickle

A fermented pickle made with assorted vegetables, spices, and vinegar, left to mature for at least a year.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 32 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 212 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Indian Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Prepare a large jar for the pickle, adding vegetables as they come into season.

  2. Ensure all vegetables are perfectly dry before adding them to the jar.

  3. Tie the jar tightly after each addition of fresh vegetables.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. In a pot, steep the spices in the vinegar for 2–3 days.

  2. Rub the mustard and turmeric smooth with a little vinegar before adding to the mixture.

Combine and mature

  1. Combine all ingredients in the jar and seal tightly.

  2. Let the pickle sit for at least one year before using.

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. Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cauliflower + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and carries the spice flavours.
Flour of mustard
Adds sharp, pungent heat and body to the spiced vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its golden colour and an earthy, warm flavour.
Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the pickle and keeps a firm, crisp texture.
Garlic
Adds a pungent aroma that mellows during the long resting period.

The step that matters

Drying the vegetables before they go into the jar. Any water left on the vegetables dilutes the vinegar and lowers its protective acidity, which raises the risk of spoilage and softens the pickle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, cucumber, beans, turnip, radish):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, cucumber, beans, turnip, radish. 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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