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Cucumber Pickles

A method of pickling cucumbers in a brine and vinegar solution with sugar, mustard seed, cloves, cinnamon, alum, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

Brine and soak

  1. Select medium, small-sized cucumbers.

  2. Prepare a brine that can float an egg.

  3. Heat the brine until boiling.

  4. Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers.

  5. Let the cucumbers stand for 24 hours.

  6. Wipe the cucumbers dry.

Vinegar and spice

  1. Heat vinegar until boiling.

  2. Pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers.

  3. Let the cucumbers stand for another 24 hours.

  4. Change the vinegar.

  5. Add 1 quart of brown sugar.

  6. Add 1 pint of white mustard seed.

  7. Add whole cloves.

  8. Add cinnamon sticks.

  9. Add alum.

  10. Add ½ cup of celery seed.

  11. Heat the mixture until boiling.

  12. Pour the boiling mixture over the cucumbers.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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
Main vegetable that is firmed and flavored by the brine and vinegar over several days.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
White mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that carries into the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sours the cucumbers.

The step that matters

Heating the brine and vinegar to boiling before pouring. Pouring boiling liquid over the cucumbers heats them through and helps the brine and vinegar penetrate, so the flavor and preservation take hold evenly. Liquid that is not hot enough penetrates less well.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. 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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