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 ↓
To Pickle Lemons
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lemons
Select the finest lemons with thick rinds.
Cut deep incisions in the lemons without cutting all the way through. Fill the incisions with coarse sea salt and place the lemons upright in a dish.
Leave them near a fire or in the sun for three weeks, repeating the salting process.
Pickle
After three weeks, place the lemons in a jar with white mustard seed, bruised ginger, cloves, allspice, chilis, and a little turmeric.
Boil vinegar and pour it over the lemons once it has cooled.
Let the pickled lemons sit for at least six months before using.
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.
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,776 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Lemons
- Provide the main fruit, with their thick rinds that hold up to deep salting and long pickling.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the lemons and softens the rind through curing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that preserves the lemons and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
- Bruised ginger
- Contributes warm, pungent aroma that flavors the pickling liquid and fruit.
- White mustard seed
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavor that develops during long pickling.
The step that matters
Repeating the salting over three weeks. Salt draws water out of the lemons and softens the rind; if the salt is not renewed and the lemons are not kept warm and sunlit, curing may be uneven and the fruit may not soften properly before pickling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, ginger, clove, allspice, turmeric, vinegar):
- Limefits better
- Lemonthe original
- Mangofits about as well
- Cherryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, ginger, clove, allspice, turmeric, 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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