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Preserved Cucumbers

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,112 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Preserved Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Split the cucumbers and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in saltwater for three days.

  3. Place them in cold water with a small amount of alum and boil until tender.

  4. Drain the cucumbers and let them sit in a thin syrup for two days.

  5. Reheat the syrup and pour it over the cucumbers, repeating this twice more.

  6. Boil clarified sugar until it forms small sparks when blown through.

  7. Add the cucumbers to the sugar and simmer for five minutes.

  8. Let the mixture sit overnight, then boil again before storing.

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 + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,112 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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