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Pickled Green Peppers

A pickled green pepper recipe with cabbage stuffing and spiced vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Green Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut a slit in the side of each pepper to remove the seeds, keeping them whole.

  2. Make a strong brine and pour it over the peppers; let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Remove the peppers from the brine and soak them in water for 1 day and 1 night.

  4. Drain the water and scald some vinegar with a small piece of alum; pour it over the peppers and let them stand for 3 days.

Stuff and pickle

  1. Prepare a stuffing by mixing chopped cabbage with a little coarse sea salt and white mustard seed.

  2. Stuff the peppers tightly with the mixture, stitch them up, and place them in a stone jar.

  3. Pour scalding hot spiced vinegar over the stuffed peppers and cover 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. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green bell peppers
Form the pickle's body; their flesh softens and holds the stuffing during brining and pickling.
White cabbage
Supplies the crisp, tangy filling that fills the peppers and adds bulk and texture.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavor to the stuffing as the pickle matures.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the peppers and gives the pickle its sour taste.

The step that matters

Stuffing and sealing the peppers. Salt draws water out of the peppers and cabbage, so the stuffing must be packed tightly to avoid air pockets and spoilage. Pouring the vinegar scalding hot helps it penetrate and keeps the jar covered and sealed from air while pickling.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits about as well
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

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