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To Pickle Cucumbers

A method for pickling cucumbers in a vinegar brine with spices.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  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 mixture over the cucumbers.

Keep warm and pickle

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

  2. Boil the vinegar once each day.

  3. Keep the cucumbers covered until they turn a good green.

Store

  1. Seal them for storage.

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
The main vegetable, which softens and takes on color and flavor as it pickles.
White wine vinegar
Acid that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavor.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that infuses into the vinegar and cucumbers.
Ginger
Contributes warm, aromatic flavor to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers. The vinegar must be boiling hot so it penetrates the cucumbers and helps drive out air and begin preservation. Cooler liquid would pickle more slowly and leave the cucumbers more open to spoilage.

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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