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To Pickle Cucumbers a Second Way

A method of pickling cucumbers using vinegar, spices, and garlic, left to ferment for three days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Cucumbers a Second Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickle

  1. Gather cucumbers on a dry day and place them in a narrow-topped pitcher.

  2. Add garlic, mustard seeds, mace, black pepper, long pepper, ginger, and salt to the vinegar.

  3. Pour the boiling hot vinegar over the cucumbers.

Keep warm and store

  1. Set the pitcher by the fire and keep it warm for three days.

  2. Boil the vinegar once every day and keep the cucumbers covered until they turn a good green.

  3. Tie them down with leather and store for later use.

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. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Are the main vegetable being pickled, becoming crisp and firm in the vinegar brine.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and carries the spice flavours.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent heat that flavours the brine.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that flavours the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the cucumbers covered while they turn green. Boiling the vinegar daily and keeping the cucumbers covered keeps the heat and steam in and the brine acidic, which helps the cucumbers hold colour and stay preserved rather than softening or spoiling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, garlic, mustard, pepper, ginger, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, garlic, mustard, pepper, ginger, white wine, 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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