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Nasturtiums Pickled

Pickled nasturtium fruits preserved in vinegar with spices and tarragon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Nasturtiums Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruits

  1. Wash the nasturtium fruits in cold water and drain.

  2. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt over each quart of fruits and let them stand overnight.

  3. Wipe the fruits dry and free from salt, then place them in bottles.

Add the vinegar and seal

  1. Boil 1 quart of vinegar with 1 ounce of whole mixed spice, then let it cool.

  2. Add a little of the cooled vinegar to each bottle, using ½ pint if the seeds are packed closely.

  3. Add a few whole green tarragon leaves to each bottle, then cork and seal.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cider + tarragontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together74 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Nasturtium fruits
Provide the main body and peppery flavour of the pickle.
Cider vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the fruits and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fruits, firming them and reducing their water content before pickling.
Whole mixed spice
Adds aromatic warmth that infuses into the hot vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the fruits after salting. Salted fruits must be wiped dry and free of salt before bottling. Leftover surface salt and moisture can over-season the pickle and dilute the vinegar, weakening its preserving effect.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Allspicefits about as well
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar. 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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