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Winter Dill Pickles

Pickles preserved with dill, red peppers, water, salt, and vinegar in a barrel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Dill and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,630 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Winter Dill Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Pack the barrel

  1. Pack alternate layers of pickles and dill in an airtight barrel, preferably a wine barrel.

  2. Cut the red peppers into small pieces and distribute them throughout the layers.

Make the brine

  1. Boil enough water to cover the pickles, using 1 gallon of water, ½ pound of coarse sea salt, and 1 quart of vinegar. Remove any scum that forms on the surface.

Fill and seal

  1. After cooling slightly, pour the liquid over the pickles until the barrel is full.

  2. Seal the barrel with the head and hoops, and pour paraffin into the cracks.

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. Dill + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

  2. Dill + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Pickles
Form the main body of the preserve and absorb the brine's flavor over time.
Dill
Adds its characteristic aroma and flavor to the pickles as they cure.
Red peppers
Add sweetness and color to the layers as the barrel cures.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the brine, helping preserve the pickles.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the brine, which helps preserve the pickles and sharpens their flavor.

The step that matters

Removing scum from the boiling brine. Scum that forms on the surface of the brine can carry off-flavors and spoilage microbes into the barrel. Skimming it off keeps the brine clean so the pickles cure well.

Swap the dill

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillthe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar. 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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