Skip to main content

Geebn Pickled Cucumbers. No. 1.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Geebn Pickled Cucumbers. No. 1.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Gather small cucumbers with a short stem and place them in a brine made of salt and water strong enough to float an egg.

  2. Cover the cucumbers and let them sit in the brine for three days, removing scum with a flannel rag each morning.

  3. On the third day, pour the brine into a clean brass kettle and bring it to a boil.

  4. Pour the hot brine over the pickles and repeat this process for three mornings.

  5. After scalding them nine times, let the pickles drain on dishes until cold.

  6. In a porcelain kettle, add enough vinegar to cover the pickles based on the size of your jar.

  7. Add allspice, cloves, cinnamon, mace, green pepper, horseradish root, ginger, mustard seeds, and 1 cup of sugar.

  8. Boil the mixture well and pour it hot over the pickles, then seal the jar tightly.

  9. Once completely cool, check the vinegar level and add more if necessary to fill the jar to the brim.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, pepper, horseradish):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, pepper, horseradish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like

Eggplant CakesEggplant Cakes34 recipesEscalloped Tomatoes (Scalloped Tomatoes)Escalloped Tomatoes (Scalloped Tomatoes)25 recipesParsnip CroquettesParsnip Croquettes12 recipesOnion PuddingOnion Pudding9 recipes