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Mustard Pickles

Pickled mustard seeds flavored with ginger, allspice, chillies, turmeric, garlic, onions, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mustard Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. In a large pot, combine the vinegar, ginger, allspice, chillies, turmeric, mustard, garlic, and salt.

  2. Mix the mustard and turmeric with some vinegar before boiling.

  3. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes, adding the onions and garlic for the last 3 minutes.

Cool and finish

  1. Once done, transfer the mixture to a crock.

  2. Allow to cool, then add the vegetables.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 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

White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens the pickle and helps preserve it.
Keen's mustard
Supplies the sharp pungency that defines the pickle's flavour.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy, warm flavour.
Ginger
Adds warm, peppery heat that balances the sharp vinegar.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows during boiling.
Onions
Adds savoury sweetness and body once softened in the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Add the onions and garlic for the last 3 minutes only. Boiling them for the full 15 minutes would overcook them into soft mush and dull their sharp flavour. A short cook keeps their texture and bite while still softening them and mellowing the garlic.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, ginger, allspice, turmeric, mustard, garlic):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, ginger, allspice, turmeric, mustard, garlic. 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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