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Pickled Lemons

A pickled lemon preparation using salt, vinegar, spices, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Lemons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the gills from the lemons and place them in a tight, covered jar.

  2. Put all other ingredients in a muslin bag and add to the jar.

Simmer and rest

  1. Set the jar in a kettle of boiling water and let it simmer until the lemons are tender.

  2. For best flavor, allow the pickled lemons to sit for three months 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
The fruit that softens during simmering and takes on the pickling flavors.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the lemons and sharpens the flavor.
Fine salt
Seasons the lemons and helps preserve them in the brine.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavor to the pickling liquid.
Cayenne
Adds heat to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice to the lemons.

The step that matters

Simmering until tender. Gentle heat softens the thick peel so the vinegar and spices can penetrate it. Too little heat or time leaves the rind firm and the flavor shallow, while overcooking can make the lemons mushy and break them down.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, vinegar, clove, nutmeg, mustard, onion):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, vinegar, clove, nutmeg, mustard, onion. 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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