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Oil Pickles

Pickles, onions, cauliflower, and mustard seed are preserved in oil and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 687 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Oil Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the pickles and onions.

  2. Separate the cauliflower into small branch pieces.

  3. Mix the pickles, onions, cauliflower, and salt together.

  4. Pour the mixture into a jar, weight it down with a plate, and let it stand for about 4 hours.

Pack and seal

  1. Drain the mixture and pack the pickles into sterilized jars.

  2. Mix the oil, mustard seed, and vinegar together and pour into the jars cold.

  3. Seal the jars airtight.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pickles
Provide the main cucumber flavor and crunch that the dish is built around.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the vegetables, firming them and seasoning the mixture.
Salad oil
Adds fat and richness and coats the vegetables, carrying flavor through the jar.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the pickles.
White onions
Add sharpness and sweetness that mellow during standing.

The step that matters

Pour the oil mixture cold into the jars. Oil and vinegar separate and do not blend into a stable dressing, so the mixture must be mixed well just before pouring. Pouring it cold keeps the oil from warming and thinning, so it coats the vegetables rather than rising to the surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, cider, vinegar, cauliflower, olive):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, cider, vinegar, cauliflower, olive. 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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