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Cucumber Pickle

A cucumber pickle prepared with spices, sugar, vinegar, and cucumbers, brined for at least two weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Prepare a brine that will float an egg and soak the cucumbers in it for at least 2 weeks.

  2. If needed, they can stay in the brine for up to a month.

Freshen

  1. Soak the cucumbers in fresh water.

  2. Change the water daily until they taste fresh.

Pickle

  1. Scald the cucumbers in boiling vinegar in a bell-metal kettle to keep them green.

  2. Transfer the cucumbers to a jar.

  3. Fill the jar with cold vinegar.

  4. Let them stand for 2 more weeks.

  5. Season 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the crisp, firm body of the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the pickle.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp flavor and pungent aroma.
Ginger
Adds warm, pungent aroma.

The step that matters

Brine strength. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg. Enough salt draws water out of the cucumbers and helps suppress spoilage during the long soak, so a weak brine risks soft or spoiled cucumbers.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, ginger, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, celery, mustard):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, ginger, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, celery, 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.

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