Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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
Prepare the cucumbers
Select medium or small-sized cucumbers.
Prepare a brine that will float an egg and heat it until boiling. Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers and let them stand for 24 hours.
Wipe the cucumbers dry and heat fresh vinegar until boiling. Pour the hot vinegar over the cucumbers and let them stand for another 24 hours.
Make the pickling syrup
Change the vinegar, adding 1 quart of brown sugar, 1 pint of white mustard seed, a small handful of whole cloves, a small handful of cinnamon sticks, a piece of alum the size of an egg, and ½ cup of celery seed.
Heat this mixture until boiling 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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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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Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,668 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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 pickle itself, becoming crisp and firm as they soak and absorb the flavours.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and deepens the flavour.
- White mustard seed
- Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that carries through the sweet-sour brine.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its tang.
- Alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during the long soaking.
The step that matters
Wiping the cucumbers dry before adding the hot vinegar. Surface water dilutes the fresh vinegar and weakens its acidity, so the cucumbers may not preserve well. Drying them first keeps the vinegar strong and helps the pickles stay firm.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard, clove, cinnamon):
- Allspicefits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard, clove, cinnamon. 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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