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French Pickles

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers seasoned with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

French Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine sliced tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain the mixture through a sieve.

Season and scald

  1. Add celery seed, allspice, black pepper, turmeric, brown sugar, and mustard to the drained vegetables.

  2. Pour in the vinegar and scald the mixture well.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Cucumber + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and a tart, firm body.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and concentrating flavor during the standing time.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves and gives the pickle its sour tang.
Mustard
Adds pungency and a sharp background flavor to the brine.

The step that matters

Draining after the 24-hour stand. Salt has drawn water out of the vegetables; draining through a sieve removes that liquid so the pickle does not become watery and dilute the vinegar mixture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, celery, allspice, pepper, turmeric, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, celery, allspice, pepper, turmeric, 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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