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Pyfer Pickles

Pickles preserved by salting, soaking, and brining with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pyfer Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickles

  1. Salt the pickles and let them dry for 10 days.

  2. Soak the pickles in fresh water for 1 day.

  3. Pour off the water.

  4. Wash the pickles.

Make the brine

  1. Place the pickles in a porcelain kettle.

  2. Cover the pickles with water and vinegar.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of pulverized alum for each gallon.

  4. Set the kettle on a stove that had a fire during the day.

  5. Leave the kettle overnight.

Pack and finish

  1. Place the pickles in a jar with cloves, allspice, pepper, horseradish, and onions or garlic.

  2. Boil fresh vinegar.

  3. Pour the boiled vinegar over the pickles.

  4. Let the pickles sit for 2 weeks before using.

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. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Horseradish + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt
Draws moisture out of the cucumbers, firming them and beginning the preserving process.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp, tangy flavor.
Pulverized alum
Helps keep the pickles firm and crisp during the long soaking.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickles.
Horseradish
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that deepens as the pickles sit.

The step that matters

Let the pickles sit for 2 weeks before using. The flavors from the spices, vinegar and horseradish need time to penetrate the pickles, so using them early yields a harsher, less developed taste.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, allspice, pepper, horseradish. 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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Cucumber 334Mustard 151Green Tomato 141Mixed 133Sweet 85French 56 See all 17 →

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