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To Mango Cucumbers

A pickled cucumber recipe with mace, ginger, horseradish, mustard seed, vinegar, cloves, allspice, pepper, garlic, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Mango Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put a quarter ounce mace, the same of cloves and allspice, half ounce of ginger, three-quarters ounce of pepper, four ounces of horseradish, same of garlic, and half ounce mustard seed into two dozen cucumbers.

  2. Boil two gallons of vinegar with the spices, and pour it on the cucumbers.

  3. Let the cucumbers lie eight days in salt and water.

  4. Green the cucumbers by lining the kettle with green leaves and sprinkling with alum.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

24Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 7 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Macenot in our table0
Horseradishnot in our table0
Seednot 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 Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Horseradish + cucumbertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the bulk of the pickle and absorb the brine and spice flavours.
Vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that preserves the cucumbers and sharpens their flavour.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent heat that gives the pickle its bite.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, slightly bitter note and aroma to the spiced vinegar.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that rounds out the pickling liquid.
Alum (in the method)
Helps firm the cucumber flesh so it stays crisp rather than going soft.

The step that matters

Let the cucumbers lie eight days in salt and water. Salt brine draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture. Too little salt or too long a soak can leave them soft, while the right balance keeps them crisp.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, horseradish, mustard, vinegar, cucumber):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, horseradish, mustard, vinegar, cucumber. 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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