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Cucumber or Gherkin Pickle

Pickles made by layering cucumbers with salt, brining, then boiling with vinegar, sugar, spices, alum, and steaming.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Cucumber or Gherkin Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the cucumbers

  1. Choose small but perfect cucumbers not over a finger long. Pack them in a stone jar or wooden bucket in layers, strewing salt thickly between layers. Cover the top layer with salt and pour cold water enough to cover all. Place a small plate or round board on them with a clean stone to keep it down.

  2. Leave the cucumbers in the brine for a week or a month, stirring up from the bottom every other day. If the longer time, ensure the salt and water are strong enough to support an egg. If you raise your own cucumbers, pick them daily and drop them into the pickle. When ready to transfer, discard the brine, remove any softened cucumbers, and lay the rest in cold fresh water for twenty-four hours; change the water for fresh and leave for another day.

Alum and steam

  1. Have a kettle ready, lined with green vine leaves, and lay the pickles evenly within it, scattering powdered alum over the layers; a bit of alum as large as a pigeon egg will be enough for a two-gallon kettleful. Fill with cold water, cover with vine leaves, three deep; put a close lid or inverted pan over all and steam over a slow fire five or six hours, not allowing the water to boil.

Spiced vinegar and pack

  1. Prepare vinegar: to one gallon, allow a cup of sugar, three dozen whole black peppers, the same number of cloves, half as much allspice, one dozen blades of mace. Boil five minutes; put the cucumbers into a stone jar and pour the vinegar over them scalding hot, cover closely.

  2. Two days afterward scald the vinegar again and return to the pickles. Repeat this process three times more at intervals of two, four and six days.

  3. Cover with stoneware or wooden top; tie stout cloth over this and keep in a cool, dry place. They will be ready for eating in two months. Examine every few weeks.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

55Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
14 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Macenot 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. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + macetop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,096 recipes

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers (in the method)
Provide the crisp body of the pickle that the brine and vinegar act upon.
Salt (in the method)
Draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture during brining.
Vinegar (in the method)
Acidity preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp, tangy flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar with gentle sweetness.
Alum (in the method)
Helps the cucumbers stay firm during long soaking and steaming.

The step that matters

Keep the water below a boil during steaming. A rolling boil would soften the cucumbers and break down their texture. A slow, gentle steam keeps them firm and crisp.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper. 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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