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Making Pickles

A method for pickling small cucumbers in a saltwater brine and vinegar, sealed with cabbage leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 722 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Making Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brine

  1. Clean the cucumbers and place them in stone jars.

  2. Dissolve 1 quart of coarse sea salt in a pail of water by boiling.

  3. Pour the boiling saltwater over the cucumbers and cover tightly.

  4. Let them sit for 24 hours, then drain in a basket.

Pickle and seal

  1. Boil enough best cider vinegar to cover the cucumbers.

  2. Wash the jars, place the cucumbers back in, and pour the hot vinegar over them.

  3. Cover with cabbage leaves and seal the jars tightly.

  4. They will be ready to use in 48 hours.

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 + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 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 + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  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

Very small cucumbers
The main vegetable that softens and turns into pickles during brining.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brine.
Best cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the pickles their sour flavor and preserves them.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling saltwater over the cucumbers and cover tightly. The brine must be fully dissolved and hot enough to reach the cucumbers evenly. Keeping the lid tight holds in heat and steam, helping the salt penetrate and the cucumbers stay submerged and crisp.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Radishfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cauliflowerfits better
  4. Cabbagethe 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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