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Green Pepper Pickle

A pickled mixture of green and red sweet peppers, onions, and tomatoes in a vinegar, sugar, and salt solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Pepper Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Grind the peppers, onions, and tomatoes coarsely.

  2. Drain and pour boiling water over the mixture; let stand for 5 minutes.

  3. Drain again and wring out excess moisture using a cloth.

Cook and seal

  1. In a pot, mix vinegar, sugar, and salt; bring to a boil.

  2. Add the chopped mixture to the boiling liquid and boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Seal the pickle in jars.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Green sweet peppers
Give the pickle its main bulk and fresh, mildly sweet vegetable flavor.
White onions
Add savory depth and aroma that mellows during the boil.
Green tomatoes
Contribute tartness and body to the chopped vegetable mixture.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and sharpens its flavor.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness.

The step that matters

Wring out the excess moisture. Vegetables hold a lot of water; if it is not removed, it dilutes the vinegar brew and leaves the pickle watery and less firm.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, vinegar, sugar. 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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