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Sweet Ripe Cucumber Pickle

A pickle of sliced cucumbers preserved in a sweet vinegar brine with spices, raisins, and grapes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,475 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Sweet Ripe Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Take large yellow cucumbers, pare off the rind and remove the seeds, cutting them into slices half an inch thick, so that the seeds are removed and the cucumbers form rings.

  2. Soak the cucumber rings in strong salt and water overnight.

  3. Pour boiling water over the cucumbers and let them stand for an hour.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Boil a quart of vinegar with one coffee-cupful of hot water, two cups of sugar, one tablespoonful of allspice, mace, cloves, and cinnamon, ground fine.

  2. Add a handful of raisins, or two or three bunches of nearly ripe grapes, to the boiling vinegar mixture.

  3. When the vinegar mixture is boiling hot, add the cucumber rings and boil until soft to the fork.

  4. Skim the mixture onto platters, boil the syrup for ten minutes.

Jar and seal

  1. Put the cucumber rings into jars and pour the boiling hot liquid over them.

  2. Seal the jars tightly.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

70Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. See the original page.

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. Allspice + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Allspice + grapetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together753 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Grape + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Grape + coffeetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers (in the method)
Form the pickle itself, becoming tender and absorbing the spiced vinegar syrup.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the pickle and balances the sugar.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the syrup as it boils down.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and sweetness to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the cucumber rings until soft to the fork. Cucumbers are mostly water and must be cooked gently in hot syrup until tender; undercooking leaves them firm, while overcooking makes them mushy and breaks the rings apart.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, grape, vinegar, coffee):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, grape, vinegar, coffee. 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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