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Dill Pickles

A fermented cucumber pickle made with dill, garlic, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dill Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. Wash cucumbers and pack them tightly in a jar.

  2. Dissolve ¼ cup of coarse sea salt in 1 quart of water.

  3. Pour the saltwater over the cucumbers until fully submerged.

  4. Add dill, garlic, and spices to the jar.

Ferment and store

  1. Seal the jar and let it sit at room temperature for 1-2 weeks.

  2. Refrigerate after fermentation to stop the process.

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

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

  2. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Dill + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together943 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Dill + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main body and crisp texture of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and creates the brine that favors fermentation.
Dill
Adds the characteristic herbal aroma of dill pickles.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savory flavor to the brine.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickles their sour tang.

The step that matters

Keeping the cucumbers fully submerged. Vegetables exposed to air can develop mold and spoilage. Keeping them under the saltwater brine excludes oxygen and lets salt-tolerant lactic acid bacteria dominate the fermentation.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Peppermintfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, dill, 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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