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Dill Pickles

A brined cucumber pickle flavored with dill, horseradish, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dill Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Brush each cucumber with a stiff brush in cold water, then wipe dry.

  2. Peel the onions and cut the dill small; peel and cut horseradish into strips.

Pack and cover

  1. Layer cucumbers in a jar, adding onions, dill, horseradish, and spices in between layers until the jar is filled.

  2. Boil vinegar, sugar, salt, and alum together, then let cool.

  3. Pour the cooled mixture over the pickles.

  4. Make a bag shaped like the top of the jar, fill it with mustard seed, and cover the pickles.

Cure

  1. Let stand for two weeks before using.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cucumber + dilltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

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

  3. Dill + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  5. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the crisp-textured body of the pickle once cured in the brine.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sour flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the brine and helps draw water out of the cucumbers for a firmer texture.
Dill
Adds the characteristic herbal, aromatic flavour of dill pickles.
White onions
Contribute mild savoury flavour and aroma as they soak in the brine.

The step that matters

Boil the vinegar, sugar, salt, and alum, then let it cool fully before pouring. Pouring hot brine over cucumbers would soften them and cook the dill, leaving a limp texture. Cooling the brine keeps the cucumbers firm and crisp during the long cure.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, dill, horseradish, clove, allspice, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, dill, horseradish, clove, allspice, 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.

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