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Mustard Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices, preserved in mustard and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mustard Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cut tomatoes in salt water overnight.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine cucumbers, green tomatoes, red peppers, mustard, turmeric, flour, sugar, celery seed, onions, and vinegar.

  2. Cook the mixture for at least 30 minutes.

  3. Mix the reserved pint of vinegar with the flour and mustard, then add it to the pickle when nearly done.

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. 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. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Turmeric + celerytop 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

Cucumbers
Provide the bulk and crisp-tender texture of the pickle.
Green tomatoes
Add bulk and a tart body that holds its shape during cooking.
Mustard
Supplies the sharp, pungent flavour characteristic of mustard pickle.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the pickle becomes a spoonable sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and mustard mixture near the end. Flour thickens when heated with liquid and can clump if added directly to hot vegetables. Blending it first with vinegar and adding it when nearly done lets it thicken the sauce evenly without lumps.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, mustard, turmeric, flour, sugar, celery. 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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