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Pepper Pickle

A pickled mixture of green peppers and cabbage seasoned with salt, mustard seed, cloves, allspice, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Pepper Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove seeds from the peppers and chop them finely.

  2. Chop the cabbage and add it to the peppers.

  3. Use a napkin or white cotton gloves to avoid burning your hands with the peppers.

Mix and jar

  1. Add salt, mustard seed, ground cloves, and allspice to the mixture.

  2. Cover with cold vinegar and mix thoroughly.

  3. Transfer to closely covered jars.

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. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Provide the main bulk and fresh, sharp vegetable flavor of the pickle.
Cabbage
Adds crunch and bulk, absorbing the brine and vinegar flavors.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, helping them soften and preserve the pickle.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving it and giving it its tangy flavor.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, slightly bitter spice aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Handling the peppers. Chopped peppers release capsaicin, which can irritate and burn the skin, so covering the hands protects them. Thorough mixing with the salt and vinegar then spreads the brine evenly so every piece is preserved.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, 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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