Name: Mustard Pickle
Ingredients: 1 head cabbage; 2 heads cauliflower; 1 quart lima beans; 1 quart small onions; 1 package string beans; 4 sweet peppers; 3 bunches celery; 2 teaspoons turmeric; 2 teaspoons mustard seed; 2 teaspoons celery seed; whole cloves (to taste); a little cinnamon bark (to taste); 1 glass German mustard; 2 quarts small pickles; coarse sea salt (to taste); sugar (to taste); vinegar (to cover)

Why it works: Lima beans and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 156 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

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.

Lima beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together156 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together514 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together305 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together290 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,356 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cauliflower: Its florets soften when boiled, giving the pickle a tender bite.
Small pickles: Contribute a salty, sour flavour and firm texture to the mix.
Turmeric: Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a warm, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Salting the cucumbers, onions, and peppers. Salt draws water out of vegetables through osmosis, which helps them stay crisp in the vinegar rather than turning soft and watery.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, onion, beans, pepper, celery, turmeric):

Lentilsfits better
Chickpeafits better
Chestnutfits better
Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, onion, beans, pepper, celery, turmeric. 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.

Mustard Pickle