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Lime Pickle

A pickled lime dish with ginger, chilies, mustard seeds, turmeric, vinegar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Lime Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the limes

  1. Split the limes into quarters and sprinkle with salt.

  2. Let the limes sit for 24 hours, turning occasionally.

Layer and make the brine

  1. In a stone jar, layer the limes with sliced ginger, pounded chillies, and ground mustard seeds.

  2. In a saucepan, combine vinegar and ground turmeric.

  3. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes over low heat.

  4. Remove from heat, mix in lemon juice, and strain into the jar with limes.

  5. Stir the contents well.

Cure

  1. Seal the jar and keep it in the sun for 3-4 days.

  2. If needed, add more vinegar and let it sit for 2 weeks before using.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 and sour flavour, and soften as they cure in salt and acid.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the limes and helps preserve them during curing.
Vinegar
Acidifies the pickle, preserving it and sharpening its flavour.
Ground mustard seeds
Add pungent, sharp flavour that deepens as the pickle matures.
Ground turmeric
Adds golden colour and an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the vinegar and turmeric mixture. Gentle boiling cooks off harshness and blends the spices into the vinegar, while keeping the liquid from scorching the ground spices, which can turn bitter if overheated.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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