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Ououmbbb Ficklbs

A pickled cucumber recipe with onions, peppers, horse radish, allspice, cloves, sugar, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ououmbbb Ficklbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. Use two and a half gallons vinegar, three quarts water, three and a half pounds salt, six ounces alum, two of allspice, one of cloves, one quarter pound whole peppers, one half pound sugar, a little horse radish cut in strips, and two or three dozen onions for five hundred small cucumbers.

  2. Wash the cucumbers in cold water.

  3. Place them in a large jar and cover with salt.

  4. Fill the jar with boiling water and let it stand twenty-four hours.

Pickle

  1. Take the cucumbers from the brine and replace them in the jar with onion and horse radish.

  2. Pour vinegar over the cucumbers when it is boiling hot.

  3. Put alum, sugar, and spice in a bag in the vinegar while heating, and leave in the jar with pickles.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

118Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
28 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River. 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. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sharp flavour.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and helps firm their texture during brining.
Alum
Helps keep the cucumbers firm and crisp during pickling.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers. Vinegar that is not hot enough may not sufficiently penetrate and preserve the cucumbers, and the brine must be kept at a high temperature for the pickles to keep safely.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, sugar, 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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