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Cucumber Mangoes

Pickled cucumbers with cabbage, peppers, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cucumber Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut a block 1 inch square out of the side of each cucumber and scrape out the seeds and pulp.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in weak salt water for 5 hours.

  3. Mix the cabbage, green peppers, celery seed, mustard seed, black pepper, salt, and sugar to make the dressing.

  4. Squeeze the water from the dressing and stuff it into the cucumbers along with an onion set and a small bean in each.

  5. Replace the block and tie it with a ½ inch wide strip of cotton.

Pickle and jar

  1. Layer vine leaves, cucumbers, and 1 teaspoon of powdered alum in a kettle until full.

  2. Cover with vinegar and scald for 45 minutes.

  3. Transfer the cucumbers to jars, adding whole spices to taste.

  4. Boil 1 gallon of vinegar with 1.5 pounds of brown sugar for 15 minutes and pour over the pickles.

  5. If the liquid is insufficient to cover, add a little cold vinegar.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the hollow vessel that holds the stuffing and becomes the pickle itself.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and crunch to the stuffing so it stays textured after pickling.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their tang.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour to the stuffing dressing.

The step that matters

Soaking the cucumbers in salt water. Salting draws water out of the cucumbers by osmosis, firming their texture so they stay crisp rather than turning soft in the vinegar.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cabbage, pepper, celery, mustard, sugar, beans):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cabbage, pepper, celery, mustard, sugar, beans. 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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