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Cucumber Mangoes

Pickled cucumbers flavored with horse-radish, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 212 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cucumber Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Select the largest cucumbers before they are too ripe or have yellow ends.

  2. Cut long, narrow pieces out of the sides of each cucumber and scoop out the seeds.

Fill and tie

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped cabbage, horse-radish, spices, and salt.

  2. Fill the cucumbers with the mixture.

  3. Put the piece back into the side.

  4. Tie the cucumbers with twine.

Pickle

  1. Place the cucumbers in a stone jar and cover them with cold vinegar.

  2. Let them sit for one week before using.

  3. For added flavor, place a few hot peppers among the cucumbers.

  4. Drain off the vinegar.

  5. Cover with fresh vinegar.

  6. Add more horse-radish.

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. Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Radish + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the pickle itself, holding the filling and becoming tender and crisp-soft as they cure.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crisp texture to the filling inside the cucumbers.
Horse-radish
Contributes sharp, pungent heat that mellows as the pickle matures.
Cold vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickling liquid.
Whole mustard seed
Adds a sharp, slightly bitter aroma and flavor to the spiced filling.

The step that matters

Cover with cold vinegar and let sit one week. The vinegar must fully cover the cucumbers so no part is exposed to air, where spoilage can start. The full week lets the acid and spices penetrate the cucumbers and develop flavor.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, horse, radish, onion, cabbage, clove, ginger):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, horse, radish, onion, cabbage, clove, ginger. 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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