Name: Spanish Pickle
Ingredients: 12 cucumbers; 4 heads of cabbage; 1 peck green tomatoes; 12 onions; 3 ounces white mustard seed; 1 ounce celery seed; 1 ounce turmeric; 1 box Coleman’s mustard; 2.5 pounds brown sugar

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

Soak the cucumbers in brine for 3 days.
Slice the onions and chop the cabbage and tomatoes the day before, then sprinkle with salt.
When ready, squeeze the brine out of the cucumbers, wipe them off, peel, and slice them.

Cook and bottle

Combine all ingredients in a kettle and simmer slowly for 30 minutes.
Bottle the mixture.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,279 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,281 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,405 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

Cucumbers: Provide the bulk of the pickle's crisp, firm texture after brining.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar and vegetables.
White mustard seed: Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that develops as the pickle simmers.
Cabbage: Adds bulk and a mild crunch that holds up during simmering.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, onion, mustard, celery, turmeric, sugar):

Horseradishfits better
Lettucefits better
Cauliflowerfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, onion, mustard, celery, 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.