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Sweet Cucumber Pickles

A sweet pickle made by steaming cucumbers and covering them with a vinegar, sugar, pepper, and cassia bud brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Sweet Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and cut the cucumbers.

  2. Steam the cucumbers until tender.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine vinegar, sugar, red pepper, and cassia buds in a pot.

  2. Scald the mixture together.

Pack and serve

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers in a jar.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Cucumber + cassiatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + cassiatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickles and soften when steamed until tender.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickles.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cassia buds
Contribute aroma and a warm, spiced flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers. The syrup must be hot when poured so it penetrates the softened cucumbers and heats them through, helping the jar seal and keep well.

Swap the cassia

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, sugar, pepper. 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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