Name: Pickled Reel or Green Capsicums
Ingredients: green capsicums; water; vinegar; salt; sugar; spices (optional)

Why it works: Capsicum and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,160 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pickled Reel or Green Capsicums

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the green capsicums thoroughly.
In a pot, combine equal parts water and vinegar.
Add salt and sugar to taste, along with any desired spices.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour the hot mixture over the capsicums in a jar.
Seal the jar and let it cool before refrigerating.

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.

Capsicum + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,160 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Capsicum + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,560 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).