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Pyper Pickles

Pickles preserved in a spiced vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pyper Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickles

  1. Salt the pickles and let them dry for ten days.

  2. Soak the pickles in fresh water for one day.

  3. Pour off the water and place the pickles in a porcelain kettle.

Make the brine

  1. Cover the pickles with water and vinegar, then add 1 teaspoon of pulverized alum.

  2. Set the kettle over a stove that had a fire during the day and let it sit overnight.

Jar and finish

  1. Wash the pickles and place them in a jar with cloves, allspice, black pepper, horseradish, and onions or garlic.

  2. Boil fresh vinegar and pour it over the pickles.

  3. The pickles will be ready for use in two weeks.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Horseradish + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers during the ten-day drying, firming their texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavor.
Pulverized alum
Hardens the pickle tissue so the cucumbers stay firm and crisp.
Horseradish
Contributes a pungent, sharp aroma that flavors the pickles.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, horseradish. 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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