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Cucumbee Pickles

A method of pickling small cucumbers using boiling water, salt, and cider vinegar with horseradish roots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumbee Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Place cucumbers in a stone crock and pour boiling water over them to cover.

  2. Add a large handful of coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

  3. Drain off the water in the morning.

  4. Pour on more boiling water and the same quantity of salt, then let stand until the next morning.

Pack and pickle

  1. Drain off the water, wash the cucumbers in clear water, and dry with a towel.

  2. Put cucumbers in a crock, pour on boiling cider vinegar, and add small horseradish roots.

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 + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cucumber + cidertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together572 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
Salt-brining firms the flesh so the pickles stay crisp rather than soft.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them through the brining process.
Cider vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve it.
Horseradish roots
Adds a sharp, pungent aroma and flavour to the finished pickles.

The step that matters

Draining and re-brining the cucumbers. Each change of boiling water and salt must be fully drained so the cucumbers are not left too salty or soft. Drying them before adding vinegar keeps the vinegar from being diluted by residual water.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cider, vinegar):

  1. Radishfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cider, vinegar. 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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