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To Pickle Lemons

A method for preserving lemons by brining them with salt, spices, mustard seeds, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

To Pickle Lemons

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the lemons

  1. Cut deep incisions in the lemons from end to end, but do not cut through.

  2. Fill the incisions with coarse sea salt and place the lemons in a dish near the fire or in the sun.

  3. Dissolve the salt and repeat this process for 3 weeks.

Pickle

  1. After 3 weeks, place the lemons in a jar with mustard seeds and bruised spices.

  2. Boil vinegar and pour it over the lemons when cold.

  3. Let the lemons pickle for at least 6 months 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. 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. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Allspice + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide the acidic fruit base that softens and becomes pickled through salting and brining.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the lemons and preserves them while softening the peel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the lemons and gives the pickling liquid its sharp flavour.
White mustard seeds
Contribute pungent aroma and flavour that mellows during long pickling.

The step that matters

Let the lemons pickle for at least 6 months. Salt and vinegar need a long time to penetrate the thick peel and soften the flesh, so the flavour mellows and the lemons become tender. Using them early gives harsh, unbalanced results.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Avocadofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, clove, allspice, turmeric, 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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