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Yellow Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture of cabbage, cucumber, beans, radish, onions, and spices, preserved in a turmeric‑infused vinegar.

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

Yellow Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Combine cloves, mace, mustard seed, turmeric in a muslin bag, sugar, and vinegar in a large container.

  2. Set the mixture in the sun or by the fire.

  3. Stir the mixture daily.

  4. Rub the turmeric into the vinegar until ready.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut cabbage into quarters and slice cucumbers lengthwise.

  2. Add green beans, radish pods, and onions to the vegetables.

  3. Sprinkle salt over the vegetables.

  4. Let the salted vegetables stand for 24 hours.

  5. Drain the vegetables.

  6. Place the drained vegetables in the sun until completely dry.

  7. Wash the dried vegetables in clear vinegar.

Pack and pour

  1. Pack the vegetables in a jar.

  2. Boil the prepared vinegar, then pour it over 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. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Turmeric + cucumbertop 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

Turmeric
Gives the pickles their yellow colour and a warm, earthy flavour.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the pickles and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Salt
Draws water out of the vegetables so they stay crisp and dry.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the spiced vinegar.
Cabbage
Forms the firm bulk of the pickle and holds its crunch after salting.

The step that matters

Drying the vegetables in the sun. The vegetables must be completely dry before packing, because surface water dilutes the vinegar and encourages spoilage in the jar.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, mustard, turmeric, sugar, vinegar, cabbage, cucumber. 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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