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French Pickles

A pickled vegetable mixture of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and cauliflower seasoned with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

French Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Sprinkle the coarse sea salt over the sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and cauliflower, then let them stand for 24 hours.

  2. Drain the vegetables through a sieve.

Cook

  1. In a porcelain kettle, combine the drained vegetables with celery seed, allspice, black pepper, mustard seed, turmeric, ground mustard, and brown sugar.

  2. Add enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

  3. Cook over low heat for 3 to 4 hours, stirring constantly.

  4. Add the brown sugar and ground mustard in the last 30 minutes to prevent scorching.

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

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

  3. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Green tomatoes
Makes up the bulk of the pickle, and salting draws out water so the pieces stay firmer.
Green cucumbers
Adds bulk and a firm texture that salting helps keep during the long cook.
Onions
Adds savoury flavour that mellows and turns sweeter during the long, slow cooking.
Cauliflower
Adds bulk and a firm bite that holds its shape in the vinegar mixture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and salt.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring and timing the sugar over low heat. Sugar caramelises and sticks to the base of the kettle as the mixture thickens over hours, so scorching is likely. Stirring constantly and adding the sugar and ground mustard late help prevent it.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, allspice, pepper, 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.

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