Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓
Green Pepper M&Ngoes
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the tops off the green peppers and soak them in salt water for two days.
Finely chop the cabbage and mix it with mustard, allspice, and cloves.
Stuff the mixture into the peppers and tie the tops back on.
Place the stuffed peppers in jars and pour vinegar over them.
Let them sit for a few weeks before using.
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.
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mustard, allspice, clove, vinegar):
- Horseradishfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Radishfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, allspice, clove, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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