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Cucumber Pickles

A pickled cucumber recipe using vinegar, salt, ginger, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

  1. Wash the cucumbers and place them in stone jars.

  2. In a pot, combine the vinegar, salt, ginger root, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and red pepper.

  3. Boil the mixture for three minutes.

Pickle

  1. Pour the hot vinegar and spice mixture over the cucumbers.

  2. Cover the jars tightly and let them sit for three days before using.

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.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Are the main vegetable that softens and absorbs the brine flavour as they sit.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Coarse sea salt
Draws flavour into the pickle and helps keep the cucumbers firm and seasoned.
Ginger root
Adds a warm, pungent aroma that infuses the vinegar during boiling.
Cinnamon
Adds sweet woody aroma that infuses the vinegar during boiling.
Cloves
Adds strong aromatic warmth that infuses the vinegar during boiling.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot vinegar over the cucumbers. The vinegar mixture must be boiled first so the spices release their flavour and the liquid is hot enough to start pickling. Pour it over the cucumbers while still hot so the brine penetrates evenly.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger, allspice, clove, cinnamon, 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

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

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