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Pepper Mangoes

A pickled pepper dish with a mustard and horseradish dressing, preserved in vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pepper Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut a slit in the side of the bell peppers and remove the seeds and pulp.

  2. Pour boiling water over the peppers and let them stand for 24 hours, then drain.

  3. Boil the salt and saltpeter in weak vinegar.

  4. Pour the mixture over the peppers.

  5. Scald the peppers every morning for 5-6 days until they turn green.

  6. Cover the peppers with grape or cabbage leaves.

  7. Drain the peppers.

  8. Wipe the peppers dry.

Make the dressing and stuff

  1. Mix the chopped cabbage, white mustard seed, grated horseradish, black mustard seed, celery seed, and ground ginger together.

  2. Add small white onions, cucumbers, string beans, and nasturtiums to the mixture.

  3. Stuff the peppers with the dressing.

  4. Sew the peppers closed.

Jar and pickle

  1. Place the stuffed peppers in jars.

  2. Pour boiling vinegar over the stuffed peppers.

  3. Add a whole nutmeg to each jar.

  4. Ensure the peppers are covered with vinegar to prevent them from becoming soft.

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 + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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

Bell peppers
Form the pickle's body, becoming tender and green as they are scalded and then stuffed.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the peppers and seasons the brine that preserves them.
Saltpeter
Helps the peppers keep a green color during repeated scalding.
Cabbage
Provides the bulk and crisp texture of the stuffing.
Horseradish
Adds sharp pungency that mellows during pickling.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the peppers and keeps them firm.

The step that matters

Keep the peppers covered with vinegar. Peppers exposed to air can soften and spoil in the jar. Keeping them fully submerged in acidic vinegar helps them stay firm and preserved.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, cabbage, mustard, horseradish, celery, onion. 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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