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Mixed Pickle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mixed Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, cucumbers, and green peppers in a large bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

Brine and drain

  1. Press the mixture dry with your hands and pour over weak vinegar.

  2. Let it sit for two days, then drain.

Pack and pour

  1. Layer the mixture in a jar with white mustard seed, celery seed, turmeric, cinnamon bark, and grated horseradish.

  2. Dissolve sugar in boiling cider vinegar and pour over the layered mixture.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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 tart, fresh flavor.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, firming them and preparing them to take up the brine.
White mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavor that mellows during the long pickling time.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture dry before adding vinegar. Salted vegetables hold a lot of water; if they are not pressed dry, the extra liquid dilutes the vinegar and weakens both flavor and preservation.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cabbage, cucumber, pepper, vinegar, mustard, celery. 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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