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Green Pickle

A pickled cucumber recipe using strong brine, vinegar, sugar, spices, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 3 weeks, ensuring they are always covered.

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

  3. Soak the pickles in cold water for 2 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.

  5. After the first morning, pour off the vinegar and replace it with fresh weakened vinegar.

Pack and season

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

  2. Fill jars with the prepared pickles and pour over them the best vinegar after seasoning it.

  3. Season 1 gallon of vinegar with 3 pounds brown sugar, 1 tablespoon each of allspice, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, 20 drops oil of cloves or 3 ounces cloves, 1 ounce celery seed, 1 pod red pepper, and 2 tablespoons 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 preserved; the brine and vinegar steps transform its texture and flavour over days.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and gives the pickles their sweet-sour character.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the pickles and gives the sour base that the spices and sugar are added to.
Alum (in the method)
Helps the pickles stay firm and crisp during the long soaking and scalding.

The step that matters

Scald in weakened vinegar and change it each morning. Each change removes salt and softening compounds drawn from the pickles, so the vinegar stays effective and the pickles firm up instead of turning soft.

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.

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