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Cucumber Mangoes

A pickled cucumber prepared with horse-radish, onion, cabbage, cloves, ginger, mace, mustard seed, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 212 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cucumber Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Select large cucumbers that are not too ripe or yellow at the ends.

  2. Cut long, narrow pieces out of the sides of each cucumber and scoop out the seeds.

Fill and pickle

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped cabbage with all the spices and seasoning.

  2. Fill the cucumbers with the mixture, replace the piece you cut out, and tie it with twine.

  3. Place the cucumbers in a stone jar and cover them with cold vinegar.

  4. Add the chopped horse-radish and optional hot peppers.

  5. Let them sit for one week before using.

  6. If the cucumbers become flat or tasteless, drain the vinegar and cover with fresh vinegar and horse-radish.

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. Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Radish + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the pickled body that softens and absorbs the vinegar and spice flavour over the week.
Cabbage
Fills the cucumber cavities and adds crunch and body to the pickle.
Cold vinegar
Acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that infuses into the vinegar and cucumbers.
Horse-radish
Adds pungent heat that mellows as it sits in the vinegar.

The step that matters

Let them sit for one week before using. The vinegar needs time to penetrate the cucumbers and blend the spices into the flesh. Using them early leaves the flavour harsh and unevenly seasoned.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, horse, radish, onion, cabbage, clove, ginger):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, horse, radish, onion, cabbage, clove, ginger. 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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