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Green Pepper Mangoes

A pickled pepper dish with cabbage, tomatoes, mustard seed, cloves, vinegar, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Pepper Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Select firm green peppers and a few red ones for color.

  2. With a sharp knife, remove the top and seeds from the peppers.

  3. Soak the peppers overnight in salt water.

Fill and seal

  1. Fill the peppers with a mixture of chopped cabbage and green tomatoes, seasoned with salt, mustard seed, and ground cloves.

  2. Seal the tops back onto the peppers.

Pickle

  1. Boil enough vinegar to cover the peppers with 1 cup of brown sugar.

  2. Pour the vinegar mixture over the filled peppers for three consecutive mornings.

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

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

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Firm green peppers
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and gives the pickle its crisp bite.
Chopped cabbage
Adds bulk and a crunchy texture to the filling.
Chopped green tomatoes
Contribute tartness and moisture to the filling.
Vinegar
Acidifies the brine, preserving the peppers and giving them their sharp tang.
Brown sugar
Balances the vinegar's acidity with sweetness and adds depth of flavor.

The step that matters

Soaking the peppers overnight in salt water. Salt draws water out of the pepper walls through osmosis, firming them so they stay crisp rather than going soft during pickling.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, mustard, clove, vinegar, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, mustard, clove, vinegar, sugar. 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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