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Spiced Vinegar for Pickles

A vinegar infused with sugar, spices, onions, and horseradish for pickling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Vinegar for Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the vinegar and sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  2. Add allspice, mustard seed, celery seed, coarse sea salt, black pepper, cinnamon, mace, chopped onions, and grated horseradish, then mix well and bring to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool 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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + peppertop 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

Vinegar
Provides the acidic base that carries the spices and preserves the liquid.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Onions
Add savory flavour and aroma as they soften in the hot liquid.
Horseradish
Contributes pungent heat and aroma that mellows somewhat during cooking.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, allspice, mustard, celery, pepper, cinnamon. 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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