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Pyfer Pickles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Pyfer Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak cucumbers in fresh water for one day after drying them for ten days.

  2. Pour off the water and place cucumbers in a porcelain kettle.

  3. Cover cucumbers with water and vinegar, adding enough alum to taste.

  4. Let the mixture stand overnight on a stove that had a fire during the day.

  5. Wash the cucumbers and place them in a jar with cloves, allspice, pepper, horseradish, and garlic.

  6. Boil vinegar and pour it over the cucumbers in the jar.

  7. Let the pickles sit for two weeks before using.

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. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, horseradish):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, horseradish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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