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Pickled Red or Green Capsicums

A pickled condiment made from capsicums, vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Red or Green Capsicums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the capsicums and remove the stems.

  2. Pack them tightly in a clean jar.

Pickle and store

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices; bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the capsicums in the jar, ensuring they are fully submerged.

  3. Seal the jar and let it cool before storing in a cool, dark place.

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. Capsicum + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,160 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Capsicum + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,560 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Capsicums
Provide the main vegetable body and crisp-tender texture of the pickle.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the peppers and gives the pickle its tang.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and rounds out the flavour.
Spices
Add aroma and flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Fully submerging the capsicums. Peppers poking above the pickling liquid can spoil, since air exposure allows mould and bacteria to grow. Keeping every piece under the brine, which is acidic, protects the pickle during storage.

Swap the capsicum

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Beetrootfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. 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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