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Picklsb. Onions. — 1

Small onions preserved in vinegar with cloves, mace, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Picklsb. Onions. — 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel small onions and soak them in salt water for one day, changing their position once.

Pickle and jar

  1. Boil together good vinegar, cloves, mace, and a little black pepper.

  2. Dry the onions, then pour the pickle over them in a jar and cover closely.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Small onions
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming tender and mild as they soak and absorb the vinegar.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the onions during the soak, firming them and reducing harsh sharpness.
Good vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the onions and gives the pickle its tangy flavour.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.
Black pepper
Adds mild heat and a background spice note to the pickle.

The step that matters

Drying the onions before pouring the pickle. Excess surface water dilutes the hot vinegar and weakens the pickle, so the onions should be dried well before they are covered with the boiled liquid.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

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