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Pepper Vinegar Pickle

A pickle prepared by boiling red pepper in vinegar and adding vegetables soaked in salt brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Pepper Vinegar Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vinegar

  1. Boil the red pepper in 2 quarts of vinegar using a porcelain kettle.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Soak cucumbers, tomatoes, or young cimblins in salt brine for 2 days.

Pickle

  1. Place the soaked vegetables in a brass kettle lined with grape leaves.

  2. Add 1 pint of vinegar and 1 quart of water to the kettle and heat slowly.

  3. Once heated, drop the vegetables into the pepper vinegar.

  4. If necessary, add more vinegar to cover the vegetables once cooled.

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. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Pepper + grapetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,909 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + grapetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + grapetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Red pepper
Gives the pickling liquid its pungent heat and flavor.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
Cucumbers, tomatoes, or young cimblins
Main vegetables that absorb the pickling liquid and become firm and tangy.
Salt brine soak
Draws water out of the vegetables so they firm up and take on flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the vegetables to the pepper vinegar. The vegetables must be fully covered by the liquid once cooled, since any part exposed to air can spoil. Adding more vinegar if needed keeps the whole batch acidic and protected.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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