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Dill Pickles

Pickles made by layering cucumbers with dill, onion, chili, and grape leaves, then brining in salted water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dill Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Soak cucumbers in water overnight.

  2. In the morning, wipe cucumbers dry.

  3. Rub each cucumber with ground pepper and cloves.

Layer the jar

  1. Line the bottom of a pickle jar with grape leaves.

  2. Add a layer of cucumbers.

  3. Add sliced onion.

  4. Add chili peppers.

  5. Sprinkle with dill and dill stalks.

  6. Repeat layering with grape leaves and cucumbers until the jar is full.

Brine and ferment

  1. Boil water with enough salt to float an egg.

  2. Let the salted water cool.

  3. Pour the cooled brine over the cucumbers.

  4. Place a light weight over the cucumbers to keep them submerged in the brine.

  5. Let the pickles sit for 10 days to 2 weeks.

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. Cucumber + dilltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + dilltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Clove + dilltop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together187 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main body of the pickles, becoming crisp-tender and tangy as they cure.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the brine and draws out moisture while helping control spoilage-causing microbes during fermentation.
Grape leaves
Contain tannins that help the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during curing.
Dill
Adds the characteristic herbal, aromatic flavour of dill pickles.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour to the cucumbers.
Sliced onion
Adds savoury aroma and mild sweetness as it flavours the brine.

The step that matters

Keeping the cucumbers submerged in the brine. Cucumbers exposed above the brine can mold and spoil, and fermentation needs an anaerobic environment. A light weight keeps every piece under the liquid throughout the sit.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, clove, onion, dill):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, clove, onion, dill. 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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