Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine the cucumbers
Make a brine strong enough to float an egg and add small cucumbers.
Let them stand for 24 hours.
Drain the brine and bring it to a boil.
Skim off any foam.
Pour the boiling brine over the cucumbers.
Repeat this process for three mornings.
After the third day, drain off the brine and pour boiling water over the cucumbers.
Let them stand for another 24 hours.
Pack and pickle
Dry the cucumbers and pack them tightly in jars, adding slips of horseradish throughout.
For each gallon of pickles, add 1 pound of brown sugar, 1 ounce of English mustard, 1 ounce of allspice, 1 ounce of cinnamon, and alum.
Pour good cider vinegar over the packed cucumbers.
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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Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,832 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together640 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,281 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
- Small cucumbers
- Form the pickle itself; their firm flesh takes up the brine and spices.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and brine.
- Cider vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle flavour.
- Alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during the long soaking.
- Allspice
- Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickles.
- Cinnamon
- Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma to the pickles.
The step that matters
Repeated brining with boiling liquid. Pouring boiling brine over the cucumbers on each morning and then boiling water on the final day heats the pickles and draws out moisture, which helps them firm and clear. Each brine must be drained fully before the next, so the cucumbers are not left to soften in weak liquid.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, mustard, allspice, cinnamon, cider, vinegar, horseradish):
- Radishfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Beetrootfits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, mustard, allspice, cinnamon, cider, vinegar, horseradish. 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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