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Lemon Pickle

A preserved condiment made by combining lemon juice, vinegar, spices, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Lemon Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine 3 gallons of lemon juice, 3 gallons of vinegar, 1 pound of ginger, 8 ounces each of allspice, pepper, and grated lemon peel, 3.5 pounds of coarse sea salt, 2 ounces each of cloves and bird pepper, and 1 ounce each of mace and nutmeg in a large container.

  2. In another bowl, mix 6 cut lemons with 1 pound of coarse sea salt, 6 cloves of garlic, 2 ounces of scraped horseradish, and 2 ounces of mustard flour.

  3. Add 2 drachms each of cloves, mace, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper to the mixture, then pour in 4 pints of vinegar.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon juice
Provides the bulk of the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it a sharp, tangy bite.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and helps preserve the pickle by limiting microbial growth.
Ginger
Adds a warm, pungent aroma and spiciness to the pickle.
Garlic
Contributes pungent flavour that mellows during steeping.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that gives the pickle its bite.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, vinegar, ginger, allspice, pepper, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, vinegar, ginger, allspice, pepper, clove, nutmeg. 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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