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Pickled Mangoes

A pickled mango dish with salt, vinegar, spices, and brined vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Soak the mangoes in strong salt water for two weeks.

  2. Change to pure water for two days, changing the water two or three times.

  3. Remove the seeds and layer grape leaves and mangoes in a kettle, covering with leaves.

  4. Add a lump of alum and pour vinegar over them; boil for 10–15 minutes.

  5. Remove the leaves and let the pickles sit in the vinegar for a week.

Make the stuffing

  1. Prepare the stuffing: soak ginger in brine for 1–2 days, then slice.

  2. Mix sliced ginger, black pepper, mace, allspice, turmeric, dried garlic, grated horseradish, black mustard seed, and white mustard seed with olive oil.

  3. For each mango, add 2 teaspoons of brown sugar.

  4. Finely chop the cabbage, add small onions, cucumbers, and green tomatoes; brine for a day and night, then drain.

  5. Mix the chopped mangoes and spices with the brined vegetables.

Stuff and store

  1. Stuff the mangoes, tie them, and place in a stone jar.

  2. Pour cider vinegar over the mangoes and store in a bright, dry place until canned.

  3. After a month, add 3 pounds of brown sugar, adjusting to taste.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mango + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 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

Mangoes
Form the main body of the pickle, absorbing the brine, vinegar and spiced filling.
Ginger
Adds a sharp, aromatic heat that balances the sweetness and sourness of the pickle.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp bite that deepens as the pickle matures.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it a tangy flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the sharpness of vinegar and spices.
Cabbage
Supplies bulk and a crisp texture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Brining the mangoes in strong salt water. Salt draws water out of the fruit and firms its flesh, so it must be soaked long enough to season and preserve it before the freshwater rinse.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, grape, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, grape, vinegar, ginger, pepper, allspice, turmeric. 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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