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Indian Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage, cauliflower, shallots, horseradish, ginger, and various spices in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Indian Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the vegetables

  1. Slice the cabbage and divide the cauliflower into florets.

  2. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the vegetables in a large dish or wooden tub and set aside for 48 hours.

  3. After 48 hours, dry the vegetables and place them in a large jar with the garlic and other seasonings.

Pickle in vinegar

  1. Boil the vinegar and pour it over the vegetables, ensuring they are well covered.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool, then cover the jar.

  3. As other vegetables ripen, wash them in cold vinegar, wipe them, and add them to the jar, ensuring they are covered by vinegar.

  4. If more vinegar is needed, boil it before adding.

  5. When all vegetables are collected, mix them thoroughly in a large bowl.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack the vegetables into smaller jars without the vinegar.

  2. Boil the vinegar again, adding more as needed to fill the jars, along with additional seasonings.

  3. Bring the vinegar to a boil and pour it over the packed vegetables.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool, then cover the jars. This pickle keeps well if entirely covered with vinegar.

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 + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky body of the pickle that holds up to brining.
Cauliflower
Adds firm texture that stays crunchy after salting and soaking in vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidifies and preserves the vegetables, keeping them covered and stable in the jar.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent flavor that mellows during long pickling.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that infuses the vinegar and vegetables.
Coarse sea salt (in the method)
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them before pickling.

The step that matters

Keep all vegetables fully covered with vinegar. Vegetables exposed to air can spoil and grow mold. Submerging them in acidic vinegar keeps them preserved and safe during storage.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, shallot, cauliflower, horseradish, ginger, pepper, allspice):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, shallot, cauliflower, horseradish, ginger, pepper, allspice. 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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