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To Pickle Nasturtiums

A pickled condiment made from nasturtium berries, vinegar, spices, and capsicums.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

To Pickle Nasturtiums

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the berries

  1. Gather nasturtium berries after the blossoms have fallen.

  2. Soak the berries in cold water with coarse sea salt for three days, changing the water daily.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Combine white wine vinegar, mace, white pepper, and capsicums in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Pickle and store

  1. Drain the saltwater from the nasturtiums.

  2. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the nasturtiums.

  3. Seal the jar.

  4. Store for later use.

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. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + capsicumtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,160 recipes

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

  4. White wine + capsicumtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,504 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. White wine + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,329 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Nasturtium berries
Are the main ingredient, providing the body and flavour that the pickle is built around.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the berries and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy taste.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the berries during soaking, firming them and reducing their bitterness before pickling.
Capsicums
Add aromatic, savoury flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking the berries in salted water. Soaking for the full three days with daily water changes is what removes excess salt and bitterness from the berries. Skipping or shortening it leaves the pickle harsh or overly salty, and the berries may not firm properly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, mace, capsicum):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, mace, capsicum. 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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