Name: Pickled Green Peppers
Ingredients: 2 dozen large green bell peppers; strong brine; vinegar; small piece of alum; 2 heads of white cabbage, chopped fine; 1 cup white mustard seed; spiced vinegar

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Green Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Cut a slit in the side of each pepper to remove the seeds, keeping them whole.
Make a strong brine and pour it over the peppers; let them stand for 24 hours.
Remove the peppers from the brine and soak them in water for 1 day and night.
Drain the water and scald some vinegar with a small piece of alum; pour it over the peppers and let them stand for 3 days.
Prepare a stuffing by mixing chopped cabbage with salt and mustard seed; stuff the peppers tightly.
Sew up the tops of the stuffed peppers and place them in a stone jar.
Pour scalding hot spiced vinegar over the peppers and cover tightly.

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.

Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).