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To Pickle Gherkins

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 560 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash the gherkins thoroughly and place them in a jar.

  2. In a pot, combine equal parts water and vinegar, and add coarse sea salt to taste.

  3. Add your choice of spices to the brine mixture.

  4. Bring the brine to a boil, then pour it over the gherkins in the jar.

  5. Seal the jar and let it sit in a cool, dark place for at least two weeks 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mustard + dilltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + dilltop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the dill

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

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Capersbetter flavor fit
  3. Dillthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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