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Pickle Hash

A pickled vegetable mixture of cabbage, onions, celery, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes, seasoned with horseradish, mustard seed, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickle Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbage, onions, celery, cucumbers, horseradish, peppers, and tomatoes. Mix the chopped vegetables together.

  2. Layer the vegetables 2 inches deep in a crock. Sprinkle each layer with 1 tablespoon of salt until all vegetables are used.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

  4. Drain and press out all liquid. Cover the vegetables with boiling water. Let the vegetables stand for 10 minutes. Press out all moisture with your hands.

Pickle and store

  1. Bring the vinegar to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon of powdered alum to the boiling vinegar. Dissolve the alum in the vinegar.

  2. Layer the vegetables in a jar. Sprinkle with mustard seed, black pepper, and horseradish between layers.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the vegetables. Ensure the vegetables are well covered. Cover tightly.

  4. Let it stand for a few days.

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. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the hash and holds a crisp texture through pickling.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body that hold their shape in the brine.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, savory vegetable flavor.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickled vegetables.
Powdered alum
Helps the vegetables stay firm and crisp in the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pressing out the moisture. Salted vegetables release a lot of liquid. If they are not drained and pressed well, excess water dilutes the vinegar and the pickle can turn soft and watery.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, cucumber, horseradish, pepper, tomato, cider. 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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