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Mixed Pickle

A pickled mixture of cucumbers, cabbage, onions, beans, corn, and spices in a vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 the vegetables

  1. Cut cucumbers, cabbage, and onions as specified.

Brine and rest

  1. Make a strong brine and pour it over the boiling hot vegetables, scalding the onions separately.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

Soak

  1. Wash the vegetables well and soak them in cold water for 1 hour.

Pack and pour

  1. Drain the vegetables and pack them in jars with alternate layers of spices.

  2. Boil sugar and turmeric in the vinegar, then pour it over the pickles hot for 4 mornings.

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. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cider vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their tang.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the pickles their yellow colour and a warm, earthy flavour.
White mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour through the packed jars.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot vinegar mixture over the pickles. Heat and acidity together help preserve the vegetables and draw spice flavour into them. Pouring it hot each morning for four days lets the liquid gradually penetrate the packed jars.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, onion, beans, corn, mustard, celery):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, onion, beans, corn, 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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