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Cucumbers in Ginger Syrup

Cucumbers are preserved in a ginger-infused syrup after multiple boiling and resting steps.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cucumber work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 973 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumbers in Ginger Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ginger syrup

  1. Simmer the bruised ginger tied in muslin in 1 pint of water until reduced to about 1 cup.

  2. Add the ginger-infused water to the cucumbers in a clean pan and boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Transfer everything to a clean earthenware jar.

  4. Let it stand for 2 days and nights.

Build the syrup over several days

  1. Pour off the syrup.

  2. Boil the syrup for 5 minutes. Skim off any scum.

  3. Add the cucumbers. Boil for 5 more minutes.

  4. Return everything to the jar.

  5. Let it stand for 3 days.

  6. Boil the syrup and the remaining ginger in muslin until it adheres to the spoon.

  7. Add the cucumbers. Boil for 15 minutes.

  8. Return to the jar.

  9. Let it sit uncovered for 24 hours.

Finish and store

  1. Cover the jar with a wet bladder.

  2. After a month, transfer to small wide-mouthed glass jars.

  3. Cover with bladder and green paper.

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 + cucumbertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together973 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Ginger + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,337 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main body of the preserve, softening and taking up the syrup as they stand.
Ginger
Gives the syrup its warm, sharp aroma and flavour as it infuses into the water.
Water
Carries the ginger flavour and forms the base of the syrup as it reduces.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup with the ginger until it adheres to the spoon. Sugar-free syrup here relies on reduction to concentrate flavour and thicken it; underboiling leaves it thin and watery, while overboiling can make it too stiff or cause sticking and scorching.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, egg. 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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