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Small Cucumber Pickles

A quick pickle of cucumbers in a brine, vinegar, sugar, alum, and whole spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar 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 ↓

Small Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Wash cucumbers thoroughly in cold water.

  2. Place cucumbers in a stone jar and cover with brine.

  3. After twelve hours, drain cucumbers and place in a preserving pan.

Scald and pack

  1. Cover with vinegar, water, and pulverized alum, then scald slowly on the back of the stove.

  2. Boil cider vinegar and add 1 cup of sugar for each gallon.

  3. When cucumbers are hot, strain them out with a skimmer.

  4. Place cucumbers in jars or bottles with layers of whole spices.

  5. Cover with boiling vinegar and seal.

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 + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cucumber + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,112 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
The main vegetable that is firmed and flavored by the brine and vinegar.
Pulverized alum
Helps keep the cucumbers firm during scalding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and flavors the pickles.

The step that matters

Scalding slowly on the back of the stove. Heating gently keeps the cucumbers firm and lets the alum and vinegar penetrate evenly. Boiling hard or too long can soften the cucumbers and make them mushy.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Mustardfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cucumberthe original
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar. 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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