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Pickled Green Peppers

A pickled green pepper dish preserved in brine, vinegar, and a cabbage-mustard stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut a slit in the side of each pepper to extract the seeds, keeping them whole.

  2. Make a strong brine and pour it over the peppers; let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Remove the peppers from the brine and soak them in water for 1 day and night.

  4. 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.

Stuff and pickle

  1. Prepare a stuffing by mixing the chopped cabbage with a little salt and the mustard seed.

  2. Stuff the peppers tightly with the mixture and stitch them up.

  3. Place the stuffed peppers in a stone jar and pour hot spiced vinegar over them.

  4. Cover the jar 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.

  1. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green bell peppers
Form the pickle's main body, holding the stuffing while they soften in brine and vinegar.
White cabbage
Supplies the crisp, chopped filling that fills the peppers and adds bulk and texture.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the stuffing and pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the peppers and gives the pickle its sour taste.

The step that matters

Soaking and brining before stuffing. The peppers must stand in brine, then water, then vinegar over several days. Skipping or shortening these soaks leaves the peppers too firm or too salty, and the pickle may not keep well.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits about as well
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, mustard. 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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