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Chopped Pickles

A pickled mix of cabbage, tomatoes, onions, peppers, spices, sugar, turmeric, celery seed, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chopped Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle salt over the chopped green tomatoes.

  2. Let the tomatoes stand for a while.

  3. Drain off the water from the tomatoes.

Combine and cook

  1. Combine the tomatoes with the cabbage, onions, green peppers, mustard, ginger, cloves, mace, sugar, turmeric, and celery seed. Mix well.

  2. Cover with vinegar.

  3. Boil slowly until done.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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
Provide the bulk of the pickle and release water after salting, which is drained off.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crisp texture that holds up during slow boiling.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar and adds sweetness to the pickle.
Vinegar
Covers the vegetables and provides the acidity that preserves and flavours the pickle.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and aroma to the pickled mixture.
Ground mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that complements the vinegar and sugar.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until done. Cooking long enough softens the vegetables and lets the vinegar and spices blend, but overheating can scorch the sugar and make the mixture too soft. The record gives no time, so judge by texture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, tomato, onion, pepper, mustard, ginger, clove):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, onion, pepper, mustard, ginger, clove. 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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