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Cucumber and Gherkin Pickle

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,556 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Cucumber and Gherkin Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Select small cucumbers or gherkins, discarding any that are over a finger in length or misshapen.

  2. Pack the cucumbers in a stone jar or wooden bucket, layering them with coarse sea salt in between.

  3. Cover the top layer with salt and pour enough cold water to cover all the cucumbers.

  4. Place a small plate or round board on top, weighted down with a clean stone.

  5. Let them sit in the brine for one week to one month, stirring every other day.

  6. When ready to prepare, discard the brine and any softened cucumbers, then soak the remaining cucumbers in cold fresh water for 24 hours.

  7. Change the water and soak for another day.

  8. Prepare a kettle lined with green vine leaves and layer the cucumbers inside, sprinkling powdered alum over each layer.

  9. Use a piece of alum the size of a pigeon’s egg for a two-gallon kettle.

  10. Fill the kettle with cold water, cover with vine leaves, and steam over a slow fire for five to six hours without boiling.

  11. Once the pickles are a fine green, remove the leaves.

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. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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, vinegar, sugar, garlic):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Corianderfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, sugar, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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