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Salad

Dill Pickles

A fermented cucumber and pepper pickle with dill, grapes, and brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dill Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and scrub cucumbers and red peppers.

  2. Soak them in water for a few hours.

  3. Drain.

Layer the crock

  1. In a large crock, layer cucumbers, dill, mashed green grapes, chopped red pepper, and whole black pepper.

  2. Repeat layers until the crock is nearly full, topping with plenty of dill.

Brine and ferment

  1. Scald 2 cups of coarse sea salt in 7 quarts of water.

  2. Cool the brine.

  3. Pour the brine over cucumbers.

  4. Ensure cucumbers are well covered; add more brine if necessary.

  5. Cover with a cloth.

  6. Place a plate with a stone on top to keep cucumbers submerged.

  7. Let ferment in a warm place for 10 days.

  8. Move to a cooler location.

  9. Remove scum and wash the cloth three times a week.

  10. Optionally, use 1 quart of vinegar for every 7 quarts of water instead of green grapes.

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. Cucumber + dilltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + dilltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Dill + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + grapetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,909 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickles and ferment into a crisp, tangy texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out water and creates the brine that keeps the cucumbers safe during fermentation.
Dill
Adds its aromatic, herbal flavour to the brine and cucumbers.
Green grapes
Mashed grapes add natural sugars that feed the fermentation, as an alternative to vinegar.
Red peppers
Add sweetness and colour to the layered crock.

The step that matters

Keep the cucumbers fully submerged under the brine. Cucumbers exposed to air can grow mold and spoil, while submersion keeps the fermentation anaerobic so lactic acid bacteria dominate and produce the characteristic sour flavour.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, dill, vinegar. 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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