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Green Cucumber Pickle

A pickled cucumber recipe using allspice, cloves, mace, nutmeg, black pepper, celery seed, onion, brown sugar, and strong vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Green Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Wipe the cucumbers well after taking them out of the brine.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in vinegar for a few days, then wipe them dry.

  3. If preferred, cut the cucumbers into slices about ¼ inch thick.

Layer and pack the jar

  1. Divide the cucumbers into 3 or 4 parts.

  2. Between each part, add allspice, cloves, mace, nutmeg, black pepper, celery seed, and onion.

  3. Add plenty of brown sugar, allowing 6 to 8 pounds for a large jar.

  4. Cover with strong vinegar.

  5. Tie the mouth of the jar securely.

Cook

  1. Place the jar in a large pot filled with water and boil until you can run a straw through the pickles.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the pickles' main body; soaking in vinegar firms and preserves their texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Strong vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Celery seed
Adds a savoury, herbal aroma that complements the cucumbers.

The step that matters

Boiling in the water bath. Boiling until a straw passes through shows the cucumbers have softened enough to be tender throughout. Stopping early leaves them firm in the centre, while over-boiling makes them mushy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, allspice, clove, nutmeg, pepper, celery, onion. 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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