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Limes, Pickled

A pickled lime recipe using lime juice, salt, chilies, ginger, mustard seeds, turmeric, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Limes, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the limes

  1. Cut the limes in half.

  2. Squeeze out all the juice.

  3. Add 2 oz of salt to the lime juice.

  4. Cover the mixture closely.

  5. Sprinkle the remaining salt over the lime rinds.

  6. Let the rinds sit for 6 hours.

  7. Dry the rinds in the sun for 3 days or until hard.

Make the pickle

  1. Boil the chilies, green ginger, mustard seeds, and turmeric in the vinegar for 20 minutes.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Mix in the lime juice.

  4. Strain the mixture over the lime rinds in jars.

  5. Cover the jars closely.

  6. Place the jars in the sun for 3 to 4 days before storing.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lime + gingertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,621 recipes

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

  3. Lime + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lime + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Limes
Provide the main body, aroma and sourness of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture from the limes and helps preserve them.
Green chilies
Add heat and pungent flavour to the pickle.
Green ginger
Adds sharp, aromatic warmth that complements the limes.
Mustard seeds
Contribute a sharp, pungent flavour and texture to the pickle.
Vinegar
Acidifies the pickle, adding sourness and helping preserve it.

The step that matters

Drying the rinds in the sun. Salting and drying the rinds until hard removes moisture, so they stay firm and concentrate flavour rather than turning soft or spoiling in the jar.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Arrowrootfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Sweet potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lime, ginger, turmeric, vinegar. 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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