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To Pickle Lemons, and Limes

This is a method for pickling lemons and limes using salt, vinegar, spices, and garlic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and capsicum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,571 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Lemons, and Limes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemons

  1. Wipe the lemons clean and make four deep incisions in each, from the stalk to the blossom end, without dividing the fruit.

  2. Stuff the lemons with salt and place them in a deep dish in a sunny spot for 7-10 days, turning and basting them with their own juice often.

Pack the jar

  1. Rub the lemons with turmeric, if using, and place them in a stone jar with garlic and onions.

  2. Boil the vinegar with ginger, black pepper, and mustard seed, then pour it over the lemons.

  3. Add capsicums or chilies, then seal the jar with a skin and thick paper.

Rest and store

  1. Cover the jar with a plate and let it sit overnight.

  2. The pickles will be good for up to seven years if kept covered with vinegar.

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. Pepper + capsicumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,571 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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, whose peel and juice soften and turn tangy as they cure.
White wine vinegar
Its acidity preserves the lemons and gives the pickle its sharp, sour flavour.
Ginger
Adds a warm, fragrant aroma that balances the sourness of the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that stands out in the vinegar brine.
Garlic
Adds a savoury aroma that mellows and infuses the lemons during curing.
Turmeric
Gives the lemons a yellow colour and a mild, earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the lemons fully covered with vinegar. Salt and acid together inhibit spoilage microbes, but any fruit left exposed to air can mould or rot. Keeping every piece submerged in the brine protects the pickle.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, white wine, vinegar, pepper, mustard, capsicum, garlic):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, white wine, vinegar, pepper, mustard, capsicum, garlic. 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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