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Lemon Pickle

A pickled lemon condiment made with mustard seed, pepper, ginger, mace, celery seed, horseradish, brown sugar, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lemon Pickle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Salt the lemons

  1. Grate the yellow rinds of the lemons.

  2. Cut the grated rinds across each end.

  3. Pack the lemons in a small vessel with dry salt, covering them completely.

  4. Let them sit for 8 days.

  5. Remove the lemons and place them in dishes.

  6. Set the dishes in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), turning them until dry and the salt candies on them.

Pickle

  1. In a pot, combine the dried lemons with the mustard seed, black pepper, sliced ginger, mace, celery seed, horseradish, and brown sugar.

  2. Bruise the spices well but do not pound them.

  3. Pour enough vinegar over the mixture to cover the lemons.

  4. Cover the pot closely once the contents are completely cool.

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. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Their rinds and flesh supply the main sour, aromatic flavour of the pickle.
Dry salt
Draws moisture out of the lemons, softening them and preserving them before drying.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the lemons and vinegar.
Vinegar
Covers the lemons and provides acidity that helps preserve the pickle.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp pungency and body to the pickle as the spices soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Drying the salted lemons in the oven. The lemons must be turned until fully dry and the salt crystallises on them; leftover moisture would dilute the vinegar and spoil the pickle during storage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, mustard, pepper, ginger, celery, horseradish, sugar):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, mustard, pepper, ginger, celery, horseradish, sugar. 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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