Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 the cucumbers
Prepare a brine with 1 pint of coarse sea salt and 6 quarts of water.
Boil and pour it hot over the cucumbers.
Let the cucumbers soak in the brine for 1 week to 1 month.
Then soak in cold water for 2 days before using.
Make the spiced vinegar
In the morning, combine 2 gallons of cider vinegar and 1 quart of brown sugar in a pot.
Boil and skim carefully.
Add ½ pint of white mustard seed, 1 ounce of broken stick cinnamon, 1 ounce of alum, ½ ounce of whole cloves, and ½ ounce of black peppercorns to the boiling mixture.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers.
Rest and finish
They can be used in a week.
After a month, scald the vinegar again and pour it over the cucumbers.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,281 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
-
Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,581 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- Main vegetable that is cured in brine and then pickled in the spiced vinegar.
- Cider vinegar
- Provides the acid that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth of flavor.
- White mustard seed
- Adds a pungent, sharp flavor to the spiced vinegar.
- Alum
- Firms the cucumber flesh so the pickles stay crisp.
The step that matters
Soaking the cucumbers in brine for a full week to a month. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture, so the long soak controls crispness and seasoning. Skipping or shortening it leaves the pickles soft and under-cured.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, clove):
- Horseradishfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Radishfits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, sugar, mustard, cinnamon, clove. 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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