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Pickled Gherkins

Pickled gherkins preserved in a brine of salt and water, then pickled in vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Pickled Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Let the gherkins remain in salt and water for 3 or 4 days.

Pickle

  1. Take them out, wipe perfectly dry, and put them into a stone jar.

  2. Boil sufficient vinegar to cover the gherkins, with spices and pepper in the above proportion, for 10 minutes.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the gherkins.

  4. Cover the jar with vine leaves and place a plate over them, setting them near the fire.

  5. Let them remain all night.

  6. Drain off the vinegar.

  7. Boil the vinegar again.

  8. Pour the hot vinegar over the gherkins.

  9. Cover with fresh leaves.

  10. Let the whole remain until quite cold.

  11. Tie down closely with bladder to exclude the air.

  12. Wait a month or two until they are fit for use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

10Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
2 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
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidic liquid that preserves the gherkins and sharpens their flavour.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a delicate, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling vinegar over the gherkins. The vinegar must be hot and fully covering the gherkins so the acid penetrates and preserves them; cooler or exposed vinegar lets spoilage organisms grow. Keeping the jar sealed excludes air, which also helps prevent spoilage during the long maturing period.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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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