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Cucumber Pickles

A method of pickling cucumbers using salt, boiling water, cider vinegar, and spices, left to mature for three weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Place cucumbers in a large container and sprinkle with salt.

  2. Pour boiling water over the cucumbers to cover them completely.

  3. Cover tightly to retain steam and let sit for 24 hours.

  4. Remove cucumbers, drain, and wipe them dry carefully.

Pickle

  1. Place cucumbers in a storage vessel.

  2. Heat enough cider vinegar to cover the cucumbers. In a pot, combine vinegar and spices and boil together.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar and spice mixture over the cucumbers and cover tightly.

  4. Let the pickles stand for three weeks before eating.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Cinnamon + mustardtop 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
Provide the crisp body of the pickle, which salt and vinegar then season and firm.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and helps them stay firm during brining.
Pure cider vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, slightly bitter flavor to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the cucumbers before pickling. Any water left on the cucumbers dilutes the hot vinegar and weakens its preserving acidity, so they should be wiped dry carefully before going into the vessel.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, allspice, cinnamon, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, allspice, cinnamon, mustard. 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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