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Spanish Pickles

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, onions, vinegar, mustard, turmeric, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,279 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice all the vegetables with a cabbage slicer.

  2. Soak each vegetable separately in weak brine for 1-2 hours, then drain using cheesecloth.

  3. Layer the vegetables in a kettle.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix mustard with cold vinegar, add turmeric, then gradually stir in boiling vinegar and sugar.

Cook and pack

  1. Add one-third of the vegetables to the kettle, pour on some vinegar, then add another third, and repeat.

  2. If the mixture is too moist, do not use all the vinegar.

  3. Boil slowly until tender, then pack into hot glass 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. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 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. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 absorb the vinegar and sugar as they cook.
Cabbage
Adds firm texture and body that holds up through long simmering.
Cider vinegar
Acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and soften into the mixture as it cooks.
Coleman's mustard
Adds pungent heat and sharp flavour to the dressing.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar and checking moisture. Vegetables release water as they cook, so the mixture can become too wet. Holding back some vinegar keeps the pickle from thinning, and boiling only until tender avoids mushy vegetables.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, onion, cider, vinegar, turmeric, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, onion, cider, vinegar, turmeric, 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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