Name: Fennel, Pickled
Ingredients: fennel; coarse sea salt; cold vinegar; nutmeg; mace

Why it works: Fennel and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 96 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Fennel, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Tie fennel into bunches.
Boil in salted water for 3-4 minutes.
Spread on a cloth to dry.
Once cold, pack fennel into glasses or bottles.
Cover with cold vinegar.
Add a little nutmeg and mace.
Seal with a bladder and leather to keep out air.

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.

Fennel + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together96 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Fennel + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together505 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fennel + macetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together73 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,415 recipes