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Mixed Pickles

A pickled mixture of green tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, green pepper, and corn in vinegar with sugar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the green tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, green pepper, and cut the corn from the cob.

Cook and can

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped vegetables with brown sugar, celery seed, mustard seed, and turmeric.

  2. Cover the mixture with vinegar.

  3. Boil for one hour.

  4. Can the mixture in sterilized jars.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 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

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the pickle and tart, fresh flavor.
Cucumbers
Add crisp texture and mild freshness to the mix.
Cabbage
Adds body and crunch that holds up during boiling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's sharpness.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.

The step that matters

Boil for one hour. The mixture must reach and hold a full boil long enough for the vinegar and sugar to blend into the vegetables. Too short a boil leaves the pickle raw-tasting and less safely preserved before canning.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, pepper, corn, sugar, celery, mustard):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, pepper, corn, sugar, celery, 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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