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Lemon Pickle

A pickled lemon preserved with salt, spices, garlic, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lemon Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. In a large bowl, combine the lemon pieces and salt.

  2. Add the garlic, mace, nutmeg, Cayenne pepper, allspice, and mustard powder.

  3. Pour in the vinegar and mix well.

Store and mature

  1. Seal the mixture in a jar and store in a cool, dry place.

  2. Let it sit for at least 2 months 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide the main fruit body and acidity that the pickle is built around.
Sea salt
Draws moisture out of the lemon pieces and helps preserve the mixture.
Vinegar
Acidic liquid that preserves the pickle and softens the lemon pieces over time.
Mustard powder
Adds pungency and sharp flavour that deepens as the pickle matures.

The step that matters

Let it sit for at least 2 months. Salt and vinegar slowly soften the lemon rind and mellow the sharp spices. Using it early gives harsh, unbalanced flavour and firmer rind.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, clove, garlic, nutmeg, pepper, allspice, mustard):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, clove, garlic, nutmeg, pepper, allspice, 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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