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Mixed Pickles

A preserved mixture of sliced tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, peppers, and spices, stored in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower 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 ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine all the sliced and chopped vegetables in a large bowl.

  2. Add the grated horseradish, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, black pepper, and chopped red peppers.

  3. Sprinkle the salt over the mixture and stir well to combine.

Pack and store

  1. Pack the mixture into sterilized jars, ensuring there are no air pockets.

  2. Seal the jars and store them in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks before using.

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. Cucumber + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 spiced brine as it matures.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and body that softens during the long rest.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables and helps preserve the mixture.
Horseradish
Contributes sharp heat that mellows over time in the jar.

The step that matters

Salting and packing the mixture. Salt draws water out of the vegetables, so the mixture must be stirred well so it is evenly seasoned, and packed without air pockets so the vegetables stay submerged in their own brine and do not spoil at the surface.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, horseradish):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, horseradish. 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.

More mixed pickles recipes

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