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Dill Pickles

Pickles made by packing cucumbers with grape leaves and dill, then brining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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

  1. Pack large cucumbers in a jar with alternate layers of grape leaves and dill, ensuring the top layer is grape leaves and dill.

  2. Pour over the cucumbers a brine strong enough to float an egg.

  3. Place a weight on top.

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 + grapetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

  3. Grape + dilltop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together110 recipes

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

  4. Dill + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Large cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickles and absorb flavour from the brine.
Grape leaves
Help keep the cucumbers crisp and add a subtle tannin flavour.
Dill
Adds the characteristic aroma and herbal flavour of dill pickles.
Brine
Salt draws out moisture and seasons the cucumbers as they ferment.

The step that matters

Keeping the cucumbers submerged under the brine. Cucumbers exposed above the liquid can spoil or mould, while submerged ones ferment safely under the brine. The weight keeps every piece below the surface throughout the process.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, dill, egg. 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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