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Chopped Pickle

A pickled mixture of cabbage, green tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, mustard seeds, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Chopped Pickle

Why it works: Mustard and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,928 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Chopped Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop cabbage, green tomatoes, and cucumbers finely.

  2. Combine equal quantities of cabbage and green tomatoes, and half as much cucumber.

  3. Add 6 seeded green peppers and 2 quarts of chopped onions.

  4. Sprinkle salt over each layer and let it stand all day.

  5. Place the mixture in a bag and let it drain overnight.

  6. Drain the onions in a separate bag.

Pickle and season

  1. Mix all ingredients together and cover with weak vinegar.

  2. Let it sit for 6 hours, then drain.

  3. Season with 1 cup each of white and black mustard seed, ⅓ cup each of ground mace, allspice, and cloves, and 1 ounce of celery seed.

  4. Add sugar to taste and cover well with boiling vinegar.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and gives it a crisp, crunchy texture.
Green tomatoes
Adds tartness and moisture to the chopped mixture.
Onions
Adds sharp flavor and body to the pickle.
White mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavor when steeped in vinegar.
Black mustard seed
Contributes a sharper, more pungent flavor when steeped in vinegar.
Boiling vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the vegetables. Salt draws water out of the chopped vegetables by osmosis. Draining thoroughly removes that liquid, so the pickle stays crisp and does not dilute the vinegar covering it.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, tomato, cucumber, pepper, onion, mustard, allspice):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, cucumber, pepper, onion, mustard, allspice. 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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