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School Pickles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

School Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine sliced pickles and granulated sugar. Let stand until the sugar dissolves.

  2. Soak pickles in salt water for two days.

  3. In a pot, heat 1 pint of vinegar and 1 pint of water with the pickles until thoroughly heated.

  4. In another pot, combine 1 quart of vinegar, 1 pint of water, 1 cup of sugar, salt, mustard seed, celery seed, and red pepper. Bring to a boil.

  5. Layer pickles and onions in a jar until full, then pour the boiling mixture over them.

  6. Place a small piece of alum on top.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 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

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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

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