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Stuffed Cucumbers

Cucumbers stuffed with raisins, cloves, lemon, and citron, then pickled in sweet syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Stuffed Cucumbers

Why it works: Cucumber and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,319 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Slit cucumbers down one side and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak cucumbers in clear water until fresh, changing the water if necessary.

  3. Drain and wipe cucumbers carefully.

  4. Fill each cucumber with seeded raisins, 3 cloves, ½ slice of lemon, and 2-3 slices of citron.

  5. Tie up the cucumbers and squeeze out all remaining water.

Cook and store

  1. Prepare a sweet pickle syrup as for any sweet pickle, omitting spices.

  2. Lay cucumbers in the syrup to cover them and cook slowly for 30 minutes, turning once.

  3. Store in a covered vessel; pickles are ready for immediate use but improve after a few days.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,319 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Large cucumbers
Form the pickle body that holds the filling and absorbs the sweet syrup.
Seeded raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture inside each cucumber.
Sweet pickle syrup
Sweetens and flavours the cucumbers as they cook slowly in it.

The step that matters

Squeeze out all remaining water after tying. Water left in the cucumbers dilutes the sweet syrup and can make the pickles watery, so removing it helps the cucumbers take up the syrup and keep a firmer texture.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, clove, lemon, syrup. 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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