Piccalilli substitutes

A Southern and Pennsylvania Dutch pickled vegetable relish, often mustard-based and turmeric-yellow.

Best for

pork pie, cheese board, ploughman's lunch, cold cuts, sausages, ham sandwiches

Prep

Taste it first. If it is much sweeter than piccalilli, stir in a quarter teaspoon of English mustard and a teaspoon of vinegar per two tablespoons.

As near to a direct equivalent as you will find, because the two condiments share a family history: chopped vegetables, a vinegar base and mustard and turmeric doing the seasoning. Recipes vary a great deal by region, so check the jar. Some chow-chows are much sweeter than piccalilli and built around green tomatoes and cabbage rather than cauliflower, which makes them softer and less crunchy, and a few carry chilli heat that piccalilli does not have. What matters is that the mustard-and-vinegar backbone is there, so it does the same job of cutting through fatty cold meat and rich cheese.

A two-minute build from ordinary supermarket ingredients.

Best for

cheese and pickle sandwiches, pork pie, burgers, cold chicken, ploughman's lunch

Prep

Mix everything in a bowl, leave for ten minutes for the mustard to come up, then taste and adjust vinegar and mustard.

The most useful entry here for anyone outside Britain, because every ingredient is in a normal supermarket. Relish supplies the sweet-sour vinegared vegetable base and the chunky texture, the mustard supplies the sinus-clearing heat that defines piccalilli, the turmeric supplies the yellow and a faint earthiness, and the extra vinegar sharpens the whole thing since relish is generally sweeter than piccalilli. The result is smoother and finer-textured than the real thing, which has distinct chunks of cauliflower you can bite, so if you want that crunch stir in a tablespoon of finely diced raw cauliflower and let it sit for an hour. Use it within a week and keep it in the fridge.

Sweet-and-sour cucumber pickles, chopped down to relish size.

Best for

cheese board, sandwiches, cold pork, sausage rolls, burgers

Prep

Drain, chop to a rough 5mm dice, then stir in mustard and let it stand for half an hour before serving.

A good option because bread-and-butter pickles already contain mustard seed and turmeric, so they are pointing in the right direction; they are simply sweeter, softer and made only of cucumber and onion. Chop them fairly small, drain off most of the liquid, and stir in English mustard, which is the missing element. What you end up with is looser and more one-dimensional than piccalilli, tasting of sweet cucumber rather than cauliflower and ginger, and the texture is yielding rather than crunchy. A pinch of ground ginger and a few whole mustard seeds get you noticeably closer.

A chunky dark British pickle of diced vegetables and dates in a sweet-sour malt vinegar sauce.

Best for

cheese and pickle sandwiches, pork pie, ploughman's lunch, cold meat platters, cheese on toast

Prep

Stir the mustard in and leave for ten minutes before serving, so the heat develops fully.

The right texture and the right function, wrong colour and wrong heat. A ploughman's pickle has the same chunky diced vegetables and the same sharp-sweet vinegar base, so it cuts through fat and cheese exactly as piccalilli does, but it is brown rather than yellow, considerably sweeter, and flavoured with malt vinegar, dates and spice rather than mustard and turmeric. It reads as fruity and malty where piccalilli reads as sharp and mustardy. Half a teaspoon of English mustard stirred into each two tablespoons closes most of the gap; a pinch of turmeric will get the colour closer if that matters to you.

A simple mix that reproduces piccalilli's function rather than its appearance.

Best for

pork pie, cold ham, cheese board, sausages, pate

Prep

Chop the cornichons small, fold into the mustard, and add a pinch of sugar and turmeric if you want it sweeter and yellower.

Honest about what it is: not piccalilli, but the fastest thing that does the same job on a plate. What piccalilli contributes to cold meat and cheese is sharp acidity, mustard heat and a bit of crunch, and this covers all three with two jars. It is much more mustard-forward and much less sweet, so if the sweetness matters, add a quarter teaspoon of sugar or honey per tablespoon. Wholegrain mustard is milder than the English mustard powder used in piccalilli, so it lacks the fierce nose heat, and the whole seeds give a popping texture rather than a smooth yellow sauce.

A same-day version made in a pan and kept in the fridge rather than preserved.

Best for

when you want the real thing, cheese board, pork pie, cold cuts, gifts

Prep

Salt the vegetables for an hour and rinse thoroughly, which is what keeps them crunchy and stops the sauce turning watery.

Genuinely easy and much better than any approximation. Cut 300g of cauliflower florets, a small onion and half a cucumber into 1cm dice, toss with a tablespoon of salt and leave in a colander for an hour, then rinse well and drain. Whisk two teaspoons of mustard powder, one teaspoon of turmeric, half a teaspoon of ground ginger and a tablespoon of cornflour with 250ml of malt or cider vinegar and 75g of sugar, bring to a simmer, whisk until thickened, then stir in the drained vegetables and cook for just two minutes so they stay crunchy. It is ready in a day and better after three. Important: this is a fridge pickle for eating within two to three weeks, not a shelf-stable preserve. If you want to make piccalilli to keep in a cupboard, follow a tested water-bath canning recipe exactly and do not change its vinegar quantity, vinegar strength or vegetable proportions, since those are what make it safe.