Name: To Pickle Peppers
Ingredients: large bell peppers; boiling water; coarse sea salt; cold vinegar; turmeric

Why it works: Pepper and turmeric are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,478 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

To Pickle Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Gather young large bell peppers, leaving seeds and stems intact.
Cut a slit in one side between the large veins to allow water in.
Pour boiling salt water over the peppers, changing it daily for three weeks.
Keep the peppers tightly sealed during this time.
After three weeks, if the peppers are a good green, place them in pots.
Cover the peppers with cold vinegar and a little turmeric.
If the peppers are not sufficiently green, continue the process until they are.

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.

Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,478 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + turmerictop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,214 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).