Name: Vegetable Pickling Liquid
Yield: Makes 3 cups
Ingredients: 2 cups cider vinegar; 1/4 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon each mustard seed, black peppercorns, coriander seed, fennel seed, and guindilla pepper; 2 sprigs fresh thyme; 1 sprig fresh dill; 2 cloves garlic

Why it works: Fennel and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 337 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Vegetable Pickling Liquid

Makes 3 cups

Ingredients

2 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon each mustard seed, black peppercorns, coriander seed, fennel seed, and guindilla pepper
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh dill
2 cloves garlic

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

100Calories

2 gProtein

1 gFat

23 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 11 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Fennel	1/2 bulb (87g)	27
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Cider	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By epicurious. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

Fennel + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together337 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Coriander + fenneltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together426 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mustard + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together913 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Coriander + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together427 recipes

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

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

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, sugar, mustard, fennel, pepper, thyme):

Tarragonfits better
Allspicefits better
Dillfits better
Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar, mustard, fennel, pepper, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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