Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
To Pickle Lemons, and Limes
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the lemons
Wash the lemons thoroughly and make four deep incisions in each, from the stalk to the blossom end, without cutting through.
Stuff the lemons with coarse sea salt and place them in a deep dish in a sunny spot for 7 to 10 days, turning and basting them with their own juice.
Pack the jar
Rub the lemons with pale turmeric, then place them in a stone jar with garlic and onions.
Add the hot pickling liquid
In a pot, boil the white wine vinegar, ginger, black pepper, and mustard seed.
Remove from heat and pour the hot mixture over the lemons in the jar.
Cover the jar with a plate and let it sit overnight.
The next day, add the capsicums and seal the jar with a skin and thick paper.
Store
Store the pickles covered with vinegar; they will last for seven years.
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.
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Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,053 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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 peel that soften and absorb the pickling flavours.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the lemons, concentrating flavour and helping preserve them.
- White wine vinegar
- Adds acidity that keeps the pickle stable and gives it a sharp, tangy taste.
- Mustard seed
- Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour to the pickling liquid.
- Ginger
- Adds a warm, aromatic bite to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Salting and sun-curing the lemons. Salt must fully penetrate the lemons and draw out their juice over the full 7 to 10 days. Under-salting or cutting the curing short leaves the fruit soft and open to spoilage, while the salt and acid together make the lemons safe to keep.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, white wine, vinegar, ginger, pepper, garlic, clove):
- Shallotfits better
- Broccolifits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, white wine, vinegar, ginger, pepper, garlic, clove. 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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