Name: Sweet Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients: 2 quarts vinegar; 1 pound brown sugar; 1 ounce cinnamon; 1 ounce cloves; 1 ounce ground pepper; 1 gallon cucumbers (for pickling)

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Sweet Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

Combine the vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and ground pepper in a kettle.
Bring the mixture to a boil.

Pickle

Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers and cover tightly.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Cinnamon + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together874 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Clove + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,319 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

Vinegar: Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sharp flavor.
Brown sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth to the brine.
Cucumbers: Form the body of the pickles, absorbing the brine and becoming crisp-tender as they cure.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet aroma to the brine.
Cloves: Contribute a strong, warm aroma and spiced flavor to the brine.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Sweet potatofits about as well
Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, clove, pepper. 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.