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Spanish Pickle

A pickled mixture of corn, cabbage, onions, cucumber pickles, and spices, simmered and sealed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Spanish Pickle

Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Spanish Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Soak the corn in weak salt-water overnight.

  2. Chop the cabbage, sprinkle with salt, place on a slanted dish with a weight on top, and let it stand overnight.

  3. Chop the onions and cut the cucumber pickles into 1-inch pieces.

  4. Squeeze the corn and cabbage to remove excess liquid.

Make the pickle

  1. Mix the corn, cabbage, onions, and cucumber pickles together.

  2. Add celery seed, white mustard seed, ground mustard, mace, cinnamon, sugar, and turmeric.

  3. Pour in enough cider vinegar to cover the mixture.

  4. Put the mixture in a kettle and simmer for 30 minutes.

  5. Seal in small jars while hot.

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. Celery + mustardtop 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. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Corn
Adds bulk and a tender, sweet texture to the pickle.
Cabbage
Provides the main crunchy body, which salting and squeezing firm up and dry.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Onions
Contribute savory sharpness and bulk to the mixture.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during simmering.

The step that matters

Squeezing the corn and cabbage. Removing excess liquid keeps the pickle from becoming watery and diluting the vinegar and sugar, so it keeps its texture and flavour.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, cabbage, onion, cucumber, celery, mustard, cinnamon. 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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