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Spiced Vinegar

A vinegar infused with spices, sugar, mustard, horseradish, lemon, onion, and salt for pickling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Spiced Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Combine and boil

  1. Combine apple vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seeds, Kentucky mustard, black pepper, cloves, celery seed, allspice, and nutmegs in a large pot, then boil the mixture together.

  2. Add scraped horseradish, sliced lemons, and sliced onions.

  3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Pickle

  1. Let the mixture drain for one day.

  2. Keep the pickles in the vinegar for two weeks.

  3. Drain the pickles for one day.

Finish

  1. Boil the vinegar and spices together.

  2. Pour the boiled vinegar and spices over the pickles.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Apple vinegar
Provides the acidic base that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the pickles.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, mustardy flavour that infuses into the liquid.
Horseradish
Adds sharp, pungent heat that carries through the pickling liquid.
Lemons
Add extra acidity and a bright citrus note.
Onions
Add savoury body and aroma that soften and absorb the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Keep the pickles in the vinegar for two weeks. Holding the vegetables in the acidic spiced liquid for a full two weeks gives the flavours time to penetrate and mellow. Rushing this stage leaves the pickles sharp and under-seasoned.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, clove, celery, allspice):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, clove, celery, allspice. 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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