Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Mixed Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Prepare the vegetables: wash cucumbers, remove stems, and cut if necessary; peel onions; remove leaves from cauliflower and break into pieces.
Cover the vegetables with hot brine made from 1 cup of coarse sea salt dissolved in 1 quart of water; let stand overnight, then drain.
Make the pickling liquid
Heat the vinegar; add sugar, finely sliced red pepper, and spices tied in cheesecloth.
Boil for 10 minutes; pour the mixture over the vegetables.
Bottle
Place in sterile bottles and seal.
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.
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Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cucumber + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together584 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cauliflower + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together105 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together501 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers, onions, cauliflower
- Form the bulk of the pickle and absorb the brine and vinegar flavour as they sit.
- Vinegar
- Provides the sour acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve it.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
- Red peppers
- Add colour and mild sweet flavour to the pickling liquid.
- Stick cinnamon, whole allspice, whole cloves
- Supply warm aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Draining after the overnight brine. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis, so they must be drained well before the hot vinegar is added. Excess water would dilute the pickling liquid and weaken its acidity and keeping quality.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, pepper, cinnamon, allspice):
- Mustardfits better
- Radishfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, pepper, cinnamon, allspice. 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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