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Green Pickle

A brined pickle preserved with vinegar, sugar, spices, and cloves, soaked and boiled over several days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Green Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Place pickles in a strong brine that can float an egg for three weeks.

  2. Drain the brine and pour boiling water over the pickles for three consecutive mornings.

  3. After the last boiling, soak pickles in cold water for two days, changing the water each morning.

Weaken the vinegar

  1. Scald pickles in a mixture of 1 quart vinegar and 2 quarts water for three mornings.

  2. On the first morning, layer pickles in a jar, sprinkle with powdered alum, fill the jar, then pour on the weakened vinegar.

  3. For the next two mornings, pour off the vinegar and add fresh weakened vinegar.

Season and pack

  1. To season 1 gallon of vinegar, mix brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, oil of cloves (or cloves), celery seed, red pepper, and grated horseradish.

  2. Fill jars with prepared pickles and pour over them boiled seasoned vinegar.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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

Pickles
The main product, firmed and cured through the brine and scalding stages.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and gives the pickles their tang.
Allspice
Adds warm aromatic flavour to the seasoned vinegar.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the seasoned vinegar.
Horseradish
Adds sharp pungency to the seasoned vinegar.

The step that matters

Soaking in the strong brine. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg for the full three weeks. Too weak a brine lets the pickles spoil or soften during the long cure, while the salt draws water out and firms the cucumbers.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, clove. 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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