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Spanish Pickle

A fermented pickle of cabbage, onions, cucumbers, peppers, mustard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Spanish Pickle

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbage and onions very fine.

  2. Cover with salt and let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Brine the cucumbers for 24 hours.

  4. Chop the green peppers and cover with salt water overnight, then squeeze out the liquid.

Make the pickle

  1. Mix the mustard seed, celery seed, turmeric, and sugar with vinegar and mustard.

  2. Boil the mixture until it begins to thicken.

  3. Add the chopped vegetables and boil for 7-8 hours.

  4. Bottle the pickle.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  5. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the bulk of the pickle and a crisp texture that softens during long boiling.
Onions
Adds savory depth and body to the pickle as they cook down.
White mustard seed
Supplies the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tang.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and mellows the sharpness of the mustard.
Turmeric
Adds a yellow colour and earthy aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Boil until the mixture begins to thicken, then add the vegetables. Thickening the spiced vinegar before adding the vegetables builds the sauce base; the long boil then softens the vegetables and lets the flavours meld while the acidity keeps the pickle preserved.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cucumber, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cucumber, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar, vinegar. 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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