Skip to main content
Main

Green Pickle

A method for pickling cucumbers using a strong brine, boiling water, cold water, vinegar, sugar, spices, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Green Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the pickles

  1. Soak the pickles in strong brine for three weeks, ensuring they are always covered.

  2. Drain the brine and pour boiling water over the pickles for three consecutive mornings.

  3. After the last boiling, soak the pickles in cold water for two days, changing the water each morning.

  4. Scald the pickles in weak vinegar for three mornings, using a mixture of 2 quarts water to 1 quart vinegar.

Alum and pack

  1. Layer the pickles in a jar, sprinkling powdered alum on each layer, then fill with the weakened vinegar.

  2. Only use alum on the first day; for the next two days, pour off the vinegar and add fresh.

  3. Fill jars with the prepared pickles and pour over them seasoned boiling vinegar.

Season the vinegar

  1. To season one gallon of vinegar, mix brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, oil of cloves, celery seed, red pepper, and grated horseradish.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Pickles
The main food being cured, softened and transformed over the long soaking process.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and spices.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sour flavor.
Alum (in the method)
Helps the pickles stay firm and crisp during the long curing process.
Cloves
Adds warm aromatic flavor to the seasoned pickling vinegar.
Horseradish
Adds sharp pungency to the seasoned vinegar.

The step that matters

Changing the water and vinegar on schedule. Repeated soaking and boiling draws out salt, bitterness and fermentation byproducts while the pickles firm up. Skipping a change or a boiling leaves the brine and vinegar weaker or dirtier, so the pickles can soften or spoil.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vinegar, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, clove):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, clove. 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.

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesHorseradish SauceHorseradish Sauce17 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes