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Drink

Hot Pickle

A spicy pickle made by boiling a mixture of shallot, ginger, mustard seeds, pepper, cayenne, long pepper, and vinegar, then pouring over vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Hot Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle liquor

  1. Pound together the shallot, ginger, mustard seeds, whole pepper, cayenne, and long pepper.

  2. Add 1 quart of vinegar and boil for 2 minutes.

  3. Let the mixture stand until cold, then strain through fine muslin.

Finish

  1. Pour the strained mixture over mixed prepared vegetables.

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. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet onion-like savour that rounds out the sharp spices.
Ginger
Contributes a warm, aromatic bite that carries through the vinegar.
Mustard seeds
Release pungent flavour when crushed and steeped, adding sharpness to the liquor.
Long pepper
Adds a hot, resinous pungency that deepens the heat of the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Straining until cold. Straining through fine muslin removes the ground and crushed spice particles so the liquor stays clear. Letting it cool fully before pouring prevents hot liquid from softening the prepared vegetables too early.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, mustard, pepper, vinegar. 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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