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Cucumber Pickles

Cucumber pickles made by soaking cucumbers in salt water, then covering with boiling vinegar and spices, and sealing for storage.

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

Brine and soak

  1. Soak the cucumbers in a weak solution of salt and water for 2 days.

  2. Cover the cucumbers with boiling vinegar and let them sit for 2 days.

Pack and pickle

  1. Place the cucumbers in jars with whole spices.

  2. Cover the cucumbers with boiling hot vinegar sweetened with 1 teacup of sugar per gallon of vinegar.

  3. For long-term storage, seal the jars.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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
The main vegetable that becomes firm and tangy as it cures in salt and vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the initial soak.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp, sour flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Whole spices
Add aroma and warm flavour as the vinegar soaks into the cucumbers.

The step that matters

Covering the cucumbers with boiling vinegar. Pouring boiling vinegar over the cucumbers helps the hot liquid penetrate and begin preserving them. Vinegar must be acidic enough to keep the pickles safe, so the ratio and seal matter for storage.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

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