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Cucumber Mangoes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cucumber Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the cucumbers in brine for one week.

  2. Wash them in cold water and scald in weak vinegar for another week.

  3. Cut the cucumbers open lengthwise and remove the seeds.

  4. Mix chopped cabbage with mustard seed, celery seed, allspice, mace, cloves, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, olive oil, and garlic or onions.

  5. Fill the cucumbers with the mixture and tie them together.

  6. Place them in a jar and pour over hot strong vinegar mixed with dissolved brown sugar.

  7. Add horseradish and red peppers to the jar.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, mustard, celery, allspice, clove, turmeric, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, mustard, celery, allspice, clove, turmeric, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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