Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Peel the large yellow pickles, cut out the seeds, and quarter them.
Sprinkle the pickles with coarse sea salt and let them stand overnight.
Pickle and jar
The next day, wipe each pickle dry and place them in hot vinegar, cooking for a few minutes.
Sweeten the white wine vinegar to taste.
After cooking, fill jars with the pickles, adding small red peppers and a little mustard seed to each jar.
Fill the jars with hot vinegar and seal them.
Dilute the vinegar if it is too strong.
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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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + white winetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,776 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Large yellow pickles
- Form the main body of the dish and provide the crisp, firm texture.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the pickles, firming their texture before they are cooked.
- Hot vinegar
- Provides the sharp acidity that preserves and flavours the pickles.
- White wine vinegar
- Adds acidity, which is balanced by sugar to give a mellow sharpness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the vinegar, balancing its acidity.
The step that matters
Dilute the vinegar if it is too strong. Vinegar that is too acidic can make the pickles harsh and overpowering. Diluting it and sweetening to taste keeps the balance of sour and sweet pleasant, and the flavour will mellow as the pickles stand.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, white wine, sugar, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardthe original
- Shallotfits about as well
- Cucumberfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, white wine, sugar, pepper. 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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