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Spiced Vinegar

A vinegar mixture spiced with mustard, cloves, celery seed, allspice, nutmeg, brown sugar, black pepper, horseradish, lemons, onions, and olive oil.

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 ↓

Spiced Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Boil vinegar, mustard seed, mustard, cloves, celery seed, allspice, nutmeg, brown sugar, and black pepper together.

  2. Add scraped horseradish, sliced lemons, and drained onions to the mixture.

  3. Once finished, stir in olive oil.

Finish the pickles

  1. After soaking pickles in brine for 10 days, scald them in plain vinegar and drain.

  2. Pour the spiced vinegar over the pickles.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 preserves the mixture and balances the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity and sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes pungent heat and texture when simmered in the vinegar.
Sliced onions
Add bulk and mild flavour that soaks up the spiced vinegar.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, clove, allspice, nutmeg, sugar, pepper. 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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