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Pickle of Ripe Cucumbers

A pickle made from ripe cucumbers, salted, sun‑dried, and preserved in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 212 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pickle of Ripe Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Peel and split the cucumbers, remove the seeds, and salt them. Let them stand for 24 hours.

  2. Sun-dry the cucumbers until moderately dry, then wash them with vinegar.

Pack and pickle

  1. Layer the cucumbers in a jar, alternating with horse-radish, mustard seed, garlic, and onions.

  2. Boil 1 quart of vinegar with raw ginger, allspice, and turmeric. Let it cool.

  3. Pour the cooled mixture over the cucumbers, seal the jar tightly, and store it away.

  4. Allow the pickle to mature for several months before using.

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. Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Radish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the bulk of the pickle; salting and drying reduce their water so they stay firm and crisp.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Salt
Draws out moisture from the cucumbers, firming their texture before pickling.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that deepens as the pickle matures.
Ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Sun-drying the cucumbers to moderate dryness. Removing enough water before packing keeps the cucumbers firm rather than soft. Too wet and they dilute the brine and turn limp; too dry and they may toughen.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, horse, radish, mustard, garlic, onion):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, horse, radish, mustard, garlic, onion. 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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