Name: Pickling Spice
Ingredients: 10 pounds small Jamaica ginger; 2½ pounds black peppercorns; 1½ pounds white peppercorns; 1½ pounds allspice; ½ pound long pepper; 1½ pounds mustard seed; ½ pound chili pods

Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickling Spice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the ginger and long pepper into small pieces.
Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

Use

Use 1 ounce of the spice mix for each pint of boiling vinegar, adjusting for desired strength.

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.

Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,928 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Small jamaica ginger: Adds a warm, aromatic bite that carries through the pickling liquid.
Black peppercorns: Provide sharp, penetrating heat that builds in the pickling liquid.
Allspice: Contributes warm, clove-like aroma to the pickling liquid.
Mustard seed: Adds pungent, sharp flavour when steeped in the vinegar.
Long pepper: Adds heat and a sweet, aromatic spiciness.
Chili pods: Add heat, mainly from capsaicin in the pods.