Why it works: Cucumber and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Dill Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Boil the water, vinegar, and salt together.
Pack and seal
Pour the hot mixture over washed cucumbers packed in jars with dill.
If the jar is not full, add boiling water.
Seal the jars while hot.
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.
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Cucumber + dilltop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together530 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Vinegar + dilltop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together659 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- Form the crisp body of the pickle that absorbs the brine flavour.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives their sour taste.
- Salt
- Seasons the brine and helps draw flavour into the cucumbers.
The step that matters
Seal the jars while hot. Hot brine and hot jars help drive air out and create a vacuum seal as the contents cool. Jars that are not sealed while hot may not seal properly, and the pickles can spoil.
Swap the dill
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, cucumber):
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Dillthe original
- Peppermintfits less well
- Garlicfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cucumber. 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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