Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Lemon Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the lemons
Grate the yellow rind of the lemons, avoiding the white part underneath.
Remove the white part and slice the lemons into pieces about 1¾ inches thick.
Coat the lemon slices thoroughly with coarse sea salt.
Place the salted lemon slices on a dish to dry in a cool oven until the juice is absorbed.
Make the pickle
In a muslin bag, combine mace, cloves, nutmeg, garlic, and mustard seed.
Boil the spice mixture in the vinegar for 10 minutes.
Place the dried lemon slices in a jar.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the lemon slices.
Seal the jar tightly.
Place the jar near a fire for 10 days, shaking it 3-4 times daily.
Ensure the lemons are fully submerged in the pickle.
Secure the jar with bladder and leather.
Let it sit for 6 months to mellow the flavor.
Strain and bottle
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Press out the liquid into a jug.
The next day, pour the clear liquid into bottles.
Cork the bottles well.
Seal the bottles with wax.
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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,053 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 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 flavour and the sour, aromatic body of the pickle.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out juice from the lemon slices, so they dry and firm before pickling.
- White wine vinegar
- Acidic liquid that preserves the lemons and carries the spice flavours.
- Mustard seed
- Adds a pungent, sharp note that complements the citrus.
The step that matters
Drying the salted lemon slices. If the slices stay wet, they dilute the vinegar and dull the pickle. Drying until the juice is absorbed lets the slices take up the hot vinegar and spices evenly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, clove, nutmeg, garlic, mustard, white wine, vinegar):
- Tarragonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, clove, nutmeg, garlic, mustard, white wine, 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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