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Chopped Pickle

A pickled mixture of cucumber pickles, green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, green peppers, and spices, stored in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Chopped Pickle

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 ↓

Chopped Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Chop the cucumber pickles, green tomatoes, and cabbage separately.

  2. Soak the chopped vegetables in salt overnight.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine dry mustard, white mustard seed, celery seed, turmeric, chopped onions, and chopped green peppers.

  2. Add vinegar and brown sugar to the pot.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Add the soaked vegetables to the pot.

  5. Cook for 2 hours.

Store

  1. Transfer the mixture into self-sealing jars for storage.

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.

  1. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  5. 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chopped body and soften into the pickle texture as they cook.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness and helps give a deeper colour.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk, holding some texture after the long simmer.
White mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Soaking the chopped vegetables in salt overnight. Salt draws water out of the cut vegetables through osmosis, firming them and reducing excess liquid. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the finished pickle wetter and softer than intended.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, cabbage, mustard, celery, turmeric, pepper. 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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