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Cucumber Pickles

A brined cucumber pickle made with water, salt, vinegar, alum, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the cucumbers

  1. Dissolve 2 cups of coarse sea salt in 1 gallon of water.

  2. Bring the brine to a scalding heat.

  3. Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers.

  4. Let the cucumbers stand overnight.

  5. Drain the cucumbers.

Vinegar and alum

  1. Scald 1 gallon of vinegar.

  2. Pour the hot vinegar over the cucumbers.

  3. Let the cucumbers sit for 24 hours.

  4. Mix 2 teaspoons of pulverized alum with 1 gallon of fresh vinegar. Heat the mixture.

  5. Pour the hot mixture over the pickles.

  6. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and spices to your taste.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers (in the method)
The main vegetable that is firmed and flavoured by the brine and vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during brining.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives their sharp flavour.
Pulverized alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm during the hot liquid treatments.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Keeping the cucumbers firm while pouring hot liquids. Repeated exposure to scalding brine and vinegar can soften cucumber tissue. Alum is added to help the pickles stay crisp, so it should be fully dissolved in the vinegar before the mixture is poured over them.

“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

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