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Cucumber Pickles

Pickled cucumbers prepared by boiling brine, vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, cloves, cinnamon, alum, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Select the medium, small-sized cucumbers.

  2. Make a brine for one bushel that will bear up an egg, heat it boiling hot, and pour it over the cucumbers.

  3. Let the cucumbers stand 24 hours, then wipe them dry.

Scald and spice

  1. Heat vinegar boiling hot and pour it over the cucumbers, letting them stand another 24 hours.

  2. Replace the vinegar with fresh vinegar, add one quart of brown sugar, a pint of white mustard seed, a small handful of whole cloves, an equal amount of cinnamon sticks, a piece of alum the size of an egg, and half a cup of celery seed; heat the mixture boiling hot and pour it over the cucumbers.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

155Calories
7 gProtein
6 gFat
19 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery Seed1 stalk (40g)6
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
White Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. 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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers (in the method)
The main vegetable that is preserved and flavored by the brine and vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp flavor to the pickling liquid.
Alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during pickling.

The step that matters

Wiping the cucumbers dry before the vinegar stage. Excess brine left on the cucumbers dilutes the hot vinegar and weakens the acidity that preserves them, so they should be wiped dry after the first 24 hours.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, mustard, clove, egg, vinegar, cinnamon. 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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