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Pepper Pickle

A pickled mixture of green peppers and cabbage seasoned with mustard seed, cloves, allspice, and salt, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pepper Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the seeds from the peppers and chop the fruit.

  2. Chop the cabbage.

  3. Use a napkin or cotton gloves to prepare the peppers to avoid burning your hands.

Pickle and jar

  1. Add all the other ingredients to the chopped peppers and cabbage.

  2. Cover with cold vinegar.

  3. Put in jars, ensuring the vinegar covers the pickles.

  4. Cork tightly.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Provide the main bulk and crisp-tender texture of the pickle.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crunchy texture that holds up in the vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidifies the mixture, preserving it and giving the pickle its sharp flavour.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the vegetables and seasons the pickle.

The step that matters

Keep the vegetables fully covered with vinegar in the jars. Vegetables exposed above the liquid can spoil and grow mould, because the acidic brine only protects what it fully surrounds.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, mustard, clove, allspice):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, mustard, clove, allspice. 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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