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Pepper Pickle

A pickled green pepper dish preserved in vinegar with mustard seed, salt, cloves, and allspice.

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.

Pickle and jar

  1. Add all the other ingredients and cover with cold vinegar.

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

  3. Cork tightly.

Handling tip

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

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
Supply the bulk and the main texture of the pickle.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and crunch that soaks up the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Its acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the sharp pickled flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during pickling.
Ground cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice notes.
Ground allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes.

The step that matters

Handling the peppers. Pepper seeds and membranes carry capsaicin, the compound that makes skin sting and burn. Wearing a napkin or cotton gloves protects your hands, and washing them before touching your eyes avoids irritation.

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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