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Pickled Peppers

A pickled pepper preparation using salt, water, boiled vinegar, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pickled Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slit the peppers on one side and remove the core.

  2. Soak the peppers in a mixture of salt and water, changing the water often, for one week in a warm place.

  3. Once the peppers turn yellow and then green, place them in a jar.

Pickle

  1. Pour boiled vinegar over the peppers and add a pinch of alum.

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 + 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

Peppers
Provide the main vegetable that softens and takes on the pickling flavour.
Boiled vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the peppers and gives them their sharp, tangy taste.
Salt
Draws water out of the peppers and helps firm and season them during soaking.
Alum
Helps the peppers stay firm and crisp during pickling.

The step that matters

Changing the salt water often during the soak. Fresh water keeps the brine salty enough to draw out moisture and limit spoilage over the week-long soak, so replacing it regularly matters.

“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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