Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓
Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Wash cucumbers thoroughly.
Place cucumbers in a stone jar.
Make a brine with coarse sea salt and water.
Pour the brine over the cucumbers.
Let cucumbers stand overnight.
Drain the brine.
Spiced vinegar
Prepare enough cider vinegar to cover the cucumbers.
Add a small lump of alum to the vinegar.
Add a bag of cloves, cinnamon, and allspice to the vinegar.
Heat the vinegar mixture until it boils.
Pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers.
Cover the cucumbers tightly.
Let them stand for three days.
Boil the vinegar again.
Pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers.
Let them stand for another three days.
Boil the vinegar again.
Pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers.
Cover tightly and store for later use while still hot.
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.
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together501 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- Main vegetable that becomes crisp-tender and takes on the pickling flavour.
- Cider vinegar
- Acid that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sour flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers in the brine, firming their texture.
- Alum
- Hardens cucumber tissue so the pickles stay firm through repeated boiling.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers. The vinegar must be boiling hot each time it is poured; repeated heating and pouring helps the cucumbers absorb spice and acid and keeps the pickles firm, while cooler vinegar would leave them less preserved and less flavourful.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, clove, cinnamon, allspice):
- Mustardfits better
- Horseradishfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, clove, cinnamon, allspice. 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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