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Chopped Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage, tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers seasoned with mustard seed, celery seed, sugar, and spices.

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

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop or grind the tomatoes, cabbage, and onions.

  2. Sprinkle with a handful or two of coarse sea salt and let the mixture drain overnight.

  3. Seed the peppers and soak them in slightly salted water for a few hours.

  4. Chop or grind the peppers.

  5. Add the peppers to the drained mixture and press out as much moisture as possible.

Cook

  1. Place the mixture into a preserving kettle, cover with vinegar, and boil for 2 hours.

  2. Add turmeric for color if desired.

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

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

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Supply the bulk of the chopped volume and a tart, fresh-vegetable base for the relish.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds up through long simmering.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and sweetness that mellows during long cooking.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's sharpness and helps with a glossy, mellow finish.
White mustard seed
Provides pungent, sharp flavor that mellows during boiling in vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its tangy character.

The step that matters

Draining the salted mixture overnight and pressing out moisture. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. Removing as much of that liquid as possible before adding vinegar keeps the pickle from becoming watery and helps it stay crisp rather than soggy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, mustard, celery, sugar, onion, clove. 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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