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To Pickle Peppers

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

To Pickle Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the ends off the peppers and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak the peppers in water with a little coarse sea salt for 6 to 8 days, changing the water daily.

  3. Chop the cabbage and onions together, then season with mustard, cloves, and allspice to taste.

  4. Fill the peppers with the cabbage and onion mixture, then replace the ends you cut off.

  5. Boil cider vinegar with a small piece of alum, then pour it over the filled peppers while hot.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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 onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, mustard, clove, allspice, cider, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, mustard, clove, allspice, cider, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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