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Sour Cucumber Pickles

A pickle made by submerging cucumbers in a vinegar and salt brine, stored for months.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Sour Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. Combine 1 gallon of cold vinegar and 1 teacup of salt in a large bowl, stirring until the salt is completely dissolved.

Pack the jars

  1. Place a grape leaf at the bottom of a jar.

  2. Fill the jar with small crisp cucumbers.

  3. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers, ensuring they are fully submerged.

  4. Add another grape leaf on top and seal the jar.

Cure and store

  1. Let the pickles sit for 2 months before using.

  2. The pickles can be stored for at least 2 years.

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. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Cucumber + grapetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + grapetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sour flavour.
Salt
Dissolves into the vinegar to season the brine and firm up the cucumbers.
Small crisp cucumbers
Form the body of the pickles, staying crunchy when fully submerged in the brine.
Grape leaves
Placed at the top and bottom of the jar, they are traditionally used to help keep the cucumbers crisp.

The step that matters

Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers, ensuring they are fully submerged.. Any cucumber left above the liquid is exposed to air, where it can spoil or mould. Full submersion in the acidic brine keeps the pickles safe and evenly sour during the long curing period.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, cucumber):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cucumber. 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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