Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Cucumber Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Cut each cucumber into four pieces, scoop out the seeds, and chop the cucumber.
Slice the onions and chop the green peppers.
Combine all the vegetables in a bag.
Salt and season
Add 1 quart of coarse sea salt, celery seed, allspice, and cloves. Let it stand overnight.
Make the vinegar and pickle
The next day, boil 5 quarts of vinegar with sugar to taste and let it cool overnight.
Remove the pickles from the bag and place them in a jar.
Pour the cooled vinegar over the pickles. They are ready for use.
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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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,422 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- Form the crisp-textured body of the pickle, which softens slightly as it cures.
- Onions
- Add savory flavor and a little sharpness that mellows during pickling.
- Green peppers
- Contribute crunch and a fresh, grassy bite to the mixed vegetables.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the vegetables, firming texture and concentrating flavor.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.
The step that matters
Overnight salting. The salt must draw enough water out of the vegetables to keep them crisp and to help the brine stay effective; the vegetables should stand fully covered by their salt for the full time, as the record directs.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, celery, allspice, clove, vinegar, sugar):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, celery, allspice, clove, vinegar, sugar. 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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