Name: Ctjcumber Pickles
Ingredients: pickles; ½ cup water; ½ cup cider vinegar; 1 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Ctjcumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the pickles in strong brine for 1 to 3 days.
Remove the pickles and rinse them in water.
In a pot, combine equal parts water and cider vinegar and bring to a boil.
Add the pickles to the boiling mixture, then remove and place them in glass jars.
In a separate pot, heat more cider vinegar, adding water if it's too strong.
Season to taste and pour over the pickles in the jars.
Seal the jars while hot.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).