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Sliced Cucumber Pickles

Pickled cucumber slices preserved in a sweet vinegar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Sliced Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Peel and cut cucumbers into thick pieces.

  2. Cover cucumbers with boiling water.

  3. Add a good amount of coarse sea salt.

  4. Let cucumbers sit in the water until nearly cold.

  5. Remove cucumbers and dry each piece with a cloth.

  6. In a large pan of cold water, add 1 tablespoon of powdered alum.

  7. Drop cucumbers into the alum water.

  8. Let cucumbers stand in the alum water for 3 hours.

  9. Without rinsing, remove cucumbers from the alum water.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, combine ½ gallon of cider vinegar, 1½ pounds of dark-brown sugar, celery seed, white mustard seed, cinnamon bark, red pepper, and sliced silver onions.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Pickle and seal

  1. Pour the mixture over the sliced cucumbers.

  2. Seal the cucumbers securely.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming crisp-textured when firmed by salt and alum.
Powdered alum
Helps cucumbers stay firm and crisp during soaking and pickling.
Cider vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that preserves and flavors the pickles.
Dark-brown sugar
Balances the vinegar with sweetness and adds molasses-like depth.
Silver onions
Add mild onion flavor to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking in the alum water. Alum helps keep pickles firm, but the cucumbers must be soaked for the full time and not rinsed afterward, so the alum stays on the surface and the texture holds through the brine.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cider, vinegar, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, pepper):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cider, vinegar, sugar, mustard, 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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