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Stuffed Cucumbers

A pickled cucumber recipe with a sweet liquor and a relish filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Stuffed Cucumbers

Why it works: Coriander and cardamom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 872 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Remove the ends of the large cucumbers and save the plugs.

  2. Use a piece of brass tubing to puncture the cucumbers, making holes ¼ inch in diameter.

Pickle and stuff

  1. Prepare a sweet liquor by combining coriander seed, cloves, mustard seed, cardamom seed, caraway seed, celery seed, crushed ginger, alum, benzoate, water, sugar, and vinegar.

  2. Cover the cucumbers with the liquor and let them sit for 5 to 10 days.

  3. Stuff the cucumbers with relish and cover them with the same liquor used for the shells.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Coriander + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Clove + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cardamom + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
100-grain vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves and flavors the pickling liquor.
Alum
Firms the cucumber tissue so it keeps its crispness during pickling.

The step that matters

Covering the cucumbers with the liquor and waiting 5 to 10 days. The liquor must fully cover the punctured cucumbers so the acid and salts penetrate evenly. Uneven coverage lets parts spoil or stay soft and under-flavored.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, clove, mustard, cardamom, caraway, celery, ginger):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, clove, mustard, cardamom, caraway, celery, 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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