Name: Pickled Jerusalem Artichokes
Ingredients: Jerusalem artichokes; 2 cups cider vinegar; 1 bay leaf; 1 slice onion; 4 whole cloves; 1 blade mace

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Pickled Jerusalem Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the Jerusalem artichokes until tender, then drain them.
Place the artichokes in a stone jar.

Make the pickle

In a porcelain-lined kettle, combine the vinegar, bay leaf, onion, cloves, and mace.
Heat the mixture over moderate heat until it reaches boiling point.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the artichokes and let it cool.
Allow the pickles to sit for 24 hours before using.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Jerusalem artichoke + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together140 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Jerusalem artichoke + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together18 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,901 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Jerusalem artichokes: Form the main body of the pickle, becoming tender when boiled and firm enough to hold the brine.
Cider vinegar: Provides the acidity that preserves the artichokes and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.

Swap the jerusalem artichoke

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, onion, clove, mace):

Mustardfits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Jerusalem artichokethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, onion, clove, mace. 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.