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Yellow Pickle

A pickled mixture of cauliflower, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and other vegetables in a vinegar and mustard brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Yellow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut the green tomatoes and peppers, discarding the seeds and any imperfections.

  2. Soak the tomatoes and peppers in strong brine for 1 hour.

  3. Drain the tomatoes and peppers.

  4. Cook the tomatoes and peppers in fresh hot water until tender.

  5. In separate pots, cook the cauliflowers (broken into small pieces) and peeled onions until tender.

  6. Drain the cauliflowers and onions.

Make the pickle

  1. In a large kettle, combine the vinegar, mustard, flour, and turmeric to form a smooth paste with a little vinegar.

  2. Stir the paste into the remaining vinegar.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Add all the cooked ingredients to the vinegar mixture.

  5. Cook slowly for 1 hour or more, stirring often.

  6. Taste and adjust salt as needed.

  7. Ensure the pickle is thick and evenly consistent.

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. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the vinegar mixture so the pickle becomes smooth and thick.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the vinegar and sugar.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its characteristic yellow colour.
Green tomatoes
Supply bulk and a firm texture that holds up during long simmering.
Cauliflowers
Add bulk and a firm, crisp-tender texture to the pickle.

The step that matters

Make a smooth paste before adding the liquid. Flour and mustard clump if dumped into hot liquid directly. Mixing them into a paste with a little cold vinegar first lets the starch disperse evenly, so the pickle thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, sugar, flour, mustard, cider, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits about as well
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, sugar, flour, mustard, cider, vinegar. 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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