Skip to main content
Main

Stuffed Cucumbers

A pickled cabbage mixture spiced with mustard, ginger, and other seasonings, served with cucumbers and onions in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Stuffed Cucumbers

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Shave the cabbage fine, salt it well, and place it in a bag for 24 hours to drain.

  2. Lay the cabbage in a shady place to dry.

Make the pickle mixture

  1. Mix the dried cabbage with black mustard seeds, white mustard seeds, ground ginger, cinnamon, mustard, celery seeds, fennel seeds, ground black pepper, red pepper, chopped onions, horseradish, turmeric, ground nutmegs, and garlic.

  2. Combine this mixture with salad oil.

  3. In a separate pot, boil brown sugar and cider vinegar together.

  4. Once boiling, pour the mixture over the pickles and let it cool.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack small cucumbers and onions into a stone jar, then pour the cooled vinegar over them.

  2. Seal the jar tightly and monitor for additional vinegar if needed.

Scald the cucumbers and beans

  1. Soak mangoes, cucumbers, and beans in clear water for 24 to 48 hours.

  2. Scald in a brass kettle with grape leaves and 1 teaspoon of alum for 1 hour without boiling.

  3. Let cool for 1 hour in the kettle.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + fenneltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together175 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Celery + fenneltop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky body of the pickle that holds the spiced dressing.
Black mustard seeds
Add sharp, pungent heat that mellows during the long pickling period.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and helps round out the flavor.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.
Salad oil
Carries the spices and coats the vegetables, adding moisture and mouthfeel.
Horseradish
Contributes sharp, volatile pungency that fades somewhat with time and heat.

The step that matters

Scalding with alum and grape leaves without boiling. Holding the liquid just below a boil keeps the cucumbers firm, since rapid boiling softens pectin in the vegetable walls. Alum and grape leaves, both tannin-rich, help the pieces stay crisp.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, mustard, ginger, cinnamon, celery, fennel, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, mustard, ginger, cinnamon, celery, fennel, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesRed CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipes