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Spanish Pickles

A pickled vegetable mixture of cucumbers, cabbage, bell peppers, onions, and spices, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 ↓

Spanish Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle salt over the cucumbers, cabbage, bell peppers, and onions. Let stand overnight.

  2. Drain well in the morning.

Make the pickles

  1. Cover with vinegar.

  2. Add sugar, mustard, white mustard seed, celery seed, and turmeric. Mix well.

  3. Boil for 3 minutes after it begins to boil.

Jar and seal

  1. Put into wide-mouthed jars and seal.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the crisp, bulky body of the pickle once salted and drained.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a firm crunch that holds up in the brine.
Onions
Contribute sharp aromatic flavor that mellows during the long steep.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and sets the tang.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp heat that deepens as the pickle sits.

The step that matters

Drain well in the morning. Salt draws water out of the vegetables. If they stay wet, the pickle will be watery and dilute the vinegar, so thorough draining keeps the texture crisp and the brine strong.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, pepper, sugar, mustard, celery, turmeric. 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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