Skip to main content
Main

Sweet Vinegar Pickles

A pickle made by soaking cauliflowers, onions, and cucumbers in saltwater, then boiling with vinegar, water, brown sugar, and mixed spice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber 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 ↓

Sweet Vinegar Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Soak the cauliflowers, onions, and cucumbers in saltwater for 24 hours.

  2. Drain and scald them three times with boiling water for about 15 minutes each time.

  3. Drain again and place in a crock.

Pickle

  1. Cover with vinegar, water, brown sugar, and mixed spice.

  2. Bring to a boil and pour over the pickles.

  3. Leave the spice bag on top of the crock and cover firmly.

  4. Let sit for about 6 weeks before using.

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. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Cauliflower + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together935 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together888 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

Vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve the vegetables.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cauliflowers
Main vegetable that becomes firm and crisp-tender once brined and pickled.
Cucumbers
Main vegetable that stays crisp and absorbs the sweet-sour pickling liquid.
Small yellow onions
Main vegetable that softens slightly and takes on the sweet-sour flavor of the brine.

The step that matters

Scalding the vegetables three times. Repeated scalding in boiling water softens the vegetables gradually, so they pick up the pickling liquid without turning mushy. Draining well between scaldings matters because excess water dilutes the vinegar brine.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, cucumber, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Radishfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, cucumber, vinegar, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Cauliflower SoupCauliflower Soup28 recipesCream of Cauliflower SoupCream of Cauliflower Soup22 recipesCreamed CauliflowerCreamed Cauliflower17 recipesEscalloped CauliflowerEscalloped Cauliflower9 recipes