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Pepper Gherkins

Pickled gherkins flavored with bay leaves, tarragon, peppercorns, mace, and shallots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pepper Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Cover gherkins with coarse sea salt and leave overnight.

  2. Wipe each gherkin with a cloth and place them in jars.

Pickle

  1. Cover gherkins with boiling vinegar and add bay leaves, tarragon, black peppercorns, coarse sea salt, mace, and shallots.

  2. Seal the jars and let them sit for three days.

  3. Drain the vinegar, boil it, let it cool, and pour it back over the gherkins.

  4. Securely tie the jars with a band and store in a cool, dry place.

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. Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + shallottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tarragon + macetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + shallottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Gherkins
Provide the main body and crisp texture of the pickle.
Boiling vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the gherkins, firming them before pickling.
Black peppercorns
Contribute pungent, aromatic heat to the pickling liquor.

The step that matters

Draining and reboiling the vinegar. Boiling the vinegar again before pouring it back helps it infuse fully and keeps the brine hot enough to preserve the gherkins. Letting it cool before pouring keeps the gherkins from softening from heat.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, tarragon, shallot. 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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