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Universal Pickle

A vinegar-based brine with spices for pickling cucumbers or other vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Universal Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Boil the vinegar and salt together.

  2. Mix the mustard and turmeric with a little cold vinegar to form a thin paste, then add to the boiling mixture.

  3. Tie the spices in muslin bags and drop them into the boiling vinegar.

  4. Add sugar to taste.

Store and pickle

  1. Store the mixture in a stone jar, tightly covered.

  2. This mixture will keep indefinitely.

  3. Add washed cucumbers or any vegetables; they will be ready to use in two to three weeks.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Acts as the pickling liquid, providing the sharp acidity that preserves and flavours the vegetables.
Salt
Seasons the brine and helps draw moisture and flavour into the vegetables.
Mustard
Adds pungency and sharp flavour to the pickling liquid.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy, warm flavour.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the mustard and turmeric paste. Mustard and turmeric are not fully dissolved in vinegar when they are first mixed, so they must be blended into a smooth thin paste with a little cold vinegar before they go into the boiling liquid. Adding them dry or lumpy can leave clumps and uneven colour and flavour in the finished pickle.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, clove, 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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