Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vessel
Clean and scald a pickling vessel with a spigot.
Place the gherkins or cucumbers directly into the vessel.
Brine and cure
Prepare a brine with 1 pound of salt for each gallon of water; heat to boiling and cool.
Pour the brine over the cucumbers and let it sit for 2-3 days until it turns white.
Drain the brine and wash the pickles and vessel with boiled, cooled water.
Make a second brine with 10% salt and ½ ounce of acetate of soda for 4 gallons of water.
Cover the pickles with the second brine, seal the vessel, and store in a cool, dark place.
Freshen and serve
To use, soak the pickles for 24 hours in running water or cold water, changing every 2 hours.
For better flavor, soak in cider vinegar for 7-8 days after removing salt.
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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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Cucumber + cidertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together572 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gherkins or small garden cucumbers
- Provide the crisp, firm body that the pickling brine transforms into the finished pickle.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them, firming the texture during curing.
- Acetate of soda
- Helps keep the pickles firm and crisp in the second brine during storage.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity and tang to the pickles when they soak after the salt is removed.
The step that matters
Soaking the pickles to remove salt. Soaking in running or changed cold water for 24 hours draws out excess salt. Changing the water every 2 hours keeps the salt gradient steep, so the pickles become edible without losing all their firmness.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar):
- Mustardfits better
- Cucumberthe original
- Capsicumfits less well
- Shallotfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar. 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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