Name: Pickles, Catsups, Soys, Etc
Ingredients: pure cider vinegar; horseradish (optional); mustard seed (optional); nasturtiums (optional); alum (optional)

Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pickles, Catsups, Soys, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Use only sound, not over-ripe vegetables or fruits for pickling.
Heat pure cider vinegar in a stone jar placed in a saucepan with hot water until it reaches the boiling point.
Pour the hot vinegar over the prepared vegetables or fruits.
To keep vinegar from molding, add a small amount of horseradish, mustard seed, or nasturtiums to each jar.
If desired, dissolve a small lump of alum in the vinegar to help keep cucumbers and gherkins crisp, but use sparingly.

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.

Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cider + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,414 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).