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Dill Pickles

A method for pickling cucumbers with dill using a brine of water, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Make the brine

  1. Boil the water and let it cool.

  2. Add the salt and vinegar to the cooled water.

Pack and cover

  1. In a 5-gallon jar, layer cucumbers and dill alternately.

  2. Pour the prepared water over the cucumbers and dill.

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. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + dilltop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Make up the body of the pickle and provide the crisp texture.
Salt
Seasons the brine and draws water out of the cucumbers, helping them firm up.
Vinegar
Adds sourness and acidity that keeps the brine preserving and tangy.
Dill
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and flavor that defines the pickle.

The step that matters

Let the water cool before adding the salt and vinegar. Hot liquid softens cucumbers and can make them mushy, so the brine should be cool before it is poured over the cucumbers and dill.

Swap the dill

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Dillthe original
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cucumber. 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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