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 ↓
Green Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine the cucumbers
Dissolve the salt in enough water to cover cucumbers and pour it boiling hot over them.
Let the cucumbers stand for 24 hours.
Pour off the brine.
Reheat the brine for two successive mornings.
Drain the brine.
Pour boiling water over the cucumbers.
Let them stand for another 24 hours.
If they are not plump, repeat with boiling water.
Pack and pickle
Once plump, pack the cucumbers in a jar with bags of allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and mustard.
Add a little horse-radish root among the cucumbers.
Heat the vinegar with dissolved alum.
Pour the hot vinegar over the cucumbers.
Cover the jar tightly.
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.
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together212 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together297 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- Main vegetable; the salt and hot water treatment firms them so they stay plump and crisp.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brine stage.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavour.
- Alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp in the hot vinegar.
- Allspice
- Adds warm aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Repeating the brine and hot water until the cucumbers are plump. Salt and hot water draw water out and firm the cucumber flesh; if they are soaked too briefly they stay soft and shrivelled, so the cook must check plumpness before packing rather than moving on by the clock alone.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, mustard, horse, radish):
- Horseradishfits better
- Cucumberthe original
- Shallotfits about as well
- Broccolifits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, mustard, horse, radish. 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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