Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Select small, unbruised cucumbers and wash them in cold water.
Make a brine with salt and water strong enough to float an egg.
Cover the cucumbers with the brine in a pickling tub.
Place a coarse cloth over the cucumbers, add a lid, and weigh it down to keep the cucumbers submerged for about nine days.
After nine days, wash the cucumbers in cold water and discard any that are soft or bruised.
Green and pack
In a preserving kettle, cover the cucumbers with hot water.
Add vine or cabbage leaves, or a clean coarse towel.
Keep the cucumbers hot but do not simmer them until they are perfectly green.
Drain the cucumbers and layer them in jars with allspice, cloves, horse-radish strips, and mustard seed.
Finish in vinegar
Cover the cucumbers with vinegar and add a teaspoon of pulverized alum to each jar.
Check the jars after a day or two and top off with more vinegar if needed.
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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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together212 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Radish + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together297 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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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
- Provide the crisp body that the brine and vinegar preserve and flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the long brine cure.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp, tangy taste.
- Pulverized alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during processing.
- Mustard seed
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Keep the cucumbers hot but do not simmer them. Simmering softens the cucumber flesh, while holding them just below a simmer keeps them firm and lets the green colour set.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, allspice, horse, radish, mustard, vinegar):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Turmericfits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, allspice, horse, radish, mustard, 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.
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