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Pickled Peppers

A pickled pepper mixture made with vinegar, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop all the peppers and onions together or grind them.

  2. Sprinkle the salt over the chopped mixture and let it stand for 5 minutes.

  3. Drain the mixture and cover it with boiling vinegar.

  4. Ensure the vinegar is hot when poured over the vegetables.

Prepare the gelatine

  1. In a separate bowl, dissolve 2 packages of Knox Gelatine in 243 ml of water and let it stand for 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the gelatine, then boil it for 10 minutes in the vinegar and sugar mixture.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Make up the bulk of the vegetable mixture and give the pickle its main texture.
Red peppers
Add colour and a mild sweetness to the mixture.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and aroma to the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the vegetables.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Gelatine (in the method)
Sets the liquid so the pickled vegetables hold together in a firm mass.

The step that matters

Drain the gelatine, then boil it for 10 minutes in the vinegar and sugar mixture.. Gelatine is a protein that sets by forming a network as it cools. Prolonged boiling can break this network down and weaken its setting power, so the mixture may not firm up properly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, sugar. 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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