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Green Cucumber Mangoes

A pickled cucumber dish with cabbage, green peppers, onions, string beans, and a vinegar-sugar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Green Cucumber Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut a block square out of the side of each cucumber and scrape out the seeds.

  2. Soak cucumbers in weak salt water for 5 hours.

  3. Mix cabbage, green peppers, celery seed, mustard seed, black pepper, salt, and sugar to make the dressing.

  4. Insert 2 small onion sets and 2 small string beans into each cucumber, then fill with the dressing.

  5. Replace the block and tie with a strip of cotton.

Pickle and jar

  1. Layer vine leaves, cucumbers, and powdered alum in a kettle until full.

  2. Cover with vinegar and scald for 1 hour.

  3. Transfer cucumbers to jars.

  4. Boil 1 gallon of fresh vinegar with 1½ pounds of brown sugar for 15 minutes. Skim the liquid.

  5. Pour the liquid over the pickles.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming crisp-tender and firm as they cure in brine and vinegar.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crisp texture that holds up through the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavor.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and a deeper flavor.
Powdered alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during scalding.
Celery seed
Adds an aromatic, savory flavor to the dressing.

The step that matters

Scalding in vinegar. Scalding for a full hour can soften cucumbers if the liquid is too hot or held too long. Keeping the vinegar below a hard boil and watching the time helps the pickles stay firm, since acid and heat both break down cell structure in vegetables.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, pepper, celery, mustard, sugar, beans):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, pepper, celery, mustard, sugar, beans. 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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