Why it works: Cucumber and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,346 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Boil a salt brine that will float an egg and pour it over the green cucumbers.
Let the cucumbers stand for 24 hours, then wipe them dry.
Pickle
Boil the acetic acid with water and assorted spices.
Pour the mixture over the pickles.
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.
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Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,346 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
- Green cucumbers
- Form the main body of the pickles, which firm and flavour as they cure.
- Salt brine
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them before pickling.
- Acetic acid
- Provides the sour acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve it.
- Assorted spices
- Add aroma and flavour to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Wiping the cucumbers dry after the 24-hour stand. Surface moisture left on the cucumbers dilutes the pickling liquid and can weaken the flavour and texture of the finished pickles.
“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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