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Pickle of Ripe Cucumbers

A pickle made from ripe cucumbers, salted, sun‑dried, and preserved in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pickle of Ripe Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Pare and split the cucumbers, remove the seeds, and salt them. Let them stand for 24 hours.

  2. Sun-dry the cucumbers until moderately dry, then wash them with vinegar.

Pack and store

  1. Layer the cucumbers in a jar, alternating with horseradish, mustard seeds, garlic, and onions.

  2. Boil the vinegar with ginger, allspice, and turmeric. Let it cool.

  3. Pour the cooled vinegar over the cucumbers, tie the jar tightly, and store it away.

  4. Allow the pickle to mature for several months before using.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Radish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming firm and crisp after salting and drying.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers, firming them and helping preserve the pickle.
Vinegar
Acidifies the pickle, preserving it and sharpening its flavour.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a mild earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Drying the cucumbers before pickling. Drying until only moderately dry removes surface water so the vinegar penetrates evenly and the pickle stays firm rather than diluted. Too wet and the brine weakens; too dry and the cucumbers toughen.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, allspice, turmeric, horse, radish, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, allspice, turmeric, horse, radish, mustard. 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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