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Pickled Lemons

A pickled lemon recipe using horseradish, eschalots or garlic, ginger, pepper, mace, sea salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pickled Lemons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the lemons in a warm spot for 8 days.

  2. In a stone jar, combine horseradish, eschalots (or garlic), and the lemons with their juice.

Pickle

  1. Simmer ginger, white pepper, and mace in boiling vinegar for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Pour the simmered mixture over the lemon mixture.

  3. Seal the jar.

  4. Let it sit for 2-3 months before using, or up to 4-5 months before straining.

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

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

  2. Horseradish + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together719 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + horseradishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Lemon + garlictop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,893 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 flesh and juice, whose acidity and peel flavour the pickling liquid draws out and softens.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, its acidity drawing out and softening the lemons over time.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that mellows as the pickle matures.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the lemons and helps preserve the pickle.

The step that matters

Sealing and resting the jar. The lemons must stay fully submerged in the vinegar and the jar must be sealed so it does not spoil or dry out. Long resting lets the acid and flavours soften the peel and mellow the sharp spices.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, horseradish, garlic, vinegar, ginger, white pepper. 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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