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Pickled Mangoes

A pickled mango dish preserved in a spiced vinegar brine with cabbage and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Make a strong brine with table salt until it can float an egg.

  2. Submerge the mangoes in the brine and let them sit for nine days.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Combine vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, mace, allspice, cinnamon, turmeric in a pot and boil together.

Fill and seal

  1. Mix chopped cabbage with garlic, horseradish, mustard, coriander, and celery seed.

  2. Fill each mango with the cabbage mixture and drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over each.

  3. Pour the boiled spiced vinegar over the filled mangoes.

  4. Seal in self-sealing jars.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the mangoes and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth of flavour.
Table salt
Draws water out of the mangoes during the brine, firming the fruit and limiting spoilage.
Chopped cabbage
Forms the bulk of the filling, adding crunch and absorbing the spiced flavours.
Olive oil
Adds fat that coats the filling and carries the spice aromas.
Mustard
Adds pungency and sharp heat that complements the spices and vinegar.

The step that matters

Submerge the mangoes in the brine for nine days. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg so it draws out enough water and salt to firm the fruit and slow spoilage. Weak brine or uneven submersion can let the mangoes soften or spoil during the long soak.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, clove, allspice, cinnamon):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, clove, allspice, cinnamon. 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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