Name: A Quick Way to Pickle Peppers
Ingredients: 100 peppers; 1 ½ cups coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); as much scalding water as needed to cover the peppers; ½ ounce cloves; ½ ounce allspice; a small lump of alum; cold vinegar

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 ↓

A Quick Way to Pickle Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

Combine 100 peppers with 1 ½ cups of coarse sea salt and enough scalding water to cover them.
Place a weight on top to keep the peppers submerged and let them sit for 2 days.
After 2 days, remove the peppers and let them drain.
Make a small opening in the side of each pepper to release any remaining water.

Pickle

Wipe the peppers clean and place them in a stone jar.
Add ½ ounce of cloves, ½ ounce of allspice, and a small lump of alum.
Cover the peppers completely with cold vinegar.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Peppers: The main ingredient, which is salted and then pickled in vinegar.
Coarse sea salt: Draws water out of the peppers during the initial brine, firming them and preserving them.
Cold vinegar: Acidifies the peppers, preserving them and giving the pickle its sharp flavor.
Cloves: Adds warm aromatic spice flavor to the pickling liquid.
Allspice: Adds warm aromatic spice flavor to the pickle.

The step that matters

Make a small opening in each pepper. Releasing remaining water helps the peppers drain and keeps excess moisture from diluting the vinegar, so the pickle stays firm and well preserved.

“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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A Quick Way to Pickle Peppers