Name: Pickled Lemons with Horseradish
Ingredients: 6 small lemons; 3 ounces coarse sea salt; 2½ ounces finely scraped horseradish; 2 ounces eschalots or 1½ ounces garlic; 1½ pints boiling vinegar; ½ ounce bruised ginger; ¼ ounce whole white pepper; 2 blades of mace

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 with Horseradish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Place the lemons in a warm place for 8 days.
In a stone jar, combine horseradish, eschalots (or garlic), and the lemons with their juice.

Pickle

Simmer ginger, white pepper, and mace in boiling vinegar for 2-3 minutes.
Pour the simmered mixture over the lemon mixture.
Seal the jar.
Let it sit for 2-3 months before straining.
The pickle can be stored for up to 4-5 months.

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.

Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Horseradish + garlictop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together719 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + horseradishtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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 sour juice and peel that flavour the pickle as they soften over time.
Coarse sea salt: Draws moisture out of the lemons and helps preserve them during the long steeping.
Horseradish: Adds a sharp, pungent heat that mellows as the pickle matures.
Eschalots or garlic: Adds savoury aroma and pungency to the pickling liquid.
Vinegar: Provides acidity that preserves the lemons and sharpens the flavour.

The step that matters

Let it sit for 2-3 months before straining. Flavours from the horseradish, spices and lemon peel need weeks to months to penetrate and mellow. Straining too early leaves the pickle harsh and underdeveloped.

Swap the mace

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

Turmericfits better
Dillfits better
Tarragonfits better
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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Horseradish Sauce17 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

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Pickled Lemons with Horseradish