Name: Corn Pickle
Ingredients: 2 quarts corn (cut from cob); 2 tablespoons salt; 2 quarts finely chopped cabbage; 3 cups sugar; 6 red peppers, finely chopped; 3 tablespoons mustard; 2 quarts vinegar

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Corn Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the mixture

Combine corn, salt, cabbage, sugar, red peppers, mustard, and vinegar in a pot.
Cook slowly for 20 minutes.

Jar

Fill sterilized jars with the mixture.
Cover jars securely.

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.

Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Provides the sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cabbage: Supplies bulk and a crisp texture that holds up during cooking.
Corn: Adds sweet kernels and bulk, giving the pickle its main body.
Red peppers: Contribute sweetness, colour and a mild, fresh flavour.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

Capsicumfits better
Horseradishfits better
Lettucefits about as well
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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.