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Mixed Pickles

A brined mixture of cucumbers, green peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, green beans, and tomatoes seasoned with mustard seeds, pepper, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine cucumbers, green peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, green beans, and tomatoes in a large bowl.

  2. Soak the mixture in a strong brine for 24 hours, then drain well.

Season and pickle

  1. After 3 hours, sprinkle black mustard seed, white mustard seed, and ground black pepper over the mixture.

  2. Boil enough vinegar to cover the mixture. Add a little alum. Strain.

  3. Once cooled, mix in ground mustard.

  4. Cover well with cider 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. Cucumber + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

Cucumbers
Provide the main crisp texture of the pickle.
Black mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as the pickle sits.
White mustard seed
Adds a milder mustard flavour and pungency to the pickle.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent mustard flavour and helps thicken the pickling liquid.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that blend into the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Draining after the brine soak. Brining draws water out of the vegetables, and draining well removes the salty liquid so the vinegar covering is not diluted and the pickle stays crisp and balanced.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, tomato, mustard. 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.

More mixed pickles recipes

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