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Pickled Lemons

A preserved lemon preparation using salt, vinegar, spices, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Lemons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemons

  1. Cut the lemons into quarters, leaving them attached at one end.

  2. Place a teaspoon of salt in each lemon quarter.

  3. Dry the lemons in the hot sun or near the stove until they turn black.

Make the pickle

  1. Prepare the vinegar by boiling it with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger root, onion, and mustard seed.

  2. Pour the boiling vinegar over the dried lemons.

Store

  1. Seal and store for one year 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide the main body and sour citrus flavour, with the peel softening during pickling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the lemons.
Cinnamon stick
Contributes warm aroma to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Contribute strong, warm aroma to the pickling vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the salted lemons until black. Drying removes moisture so the fruit can absorb the spiced vinegar and concentrate its flavour. Too little drying leaves extra water that dilutes the pickle and weakens its keeping quality. The colour change shows the lemons have lost enough water.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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