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 ↓
Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Wash the cucumbers.
Place them in a jar and cover with water.
Add 1 pint of coarse sea salt to the cucumbers.
Let them stand for 24 hours.
Drain the brine.
Wipe the cucumbers dry.
Vinegar soak
Measure the same amount of vinegar as the brine.
Scald the vinegar.
Pour the vinegar over the pickles.
Let them stand for another 24 hours.
Scald the same vinegar again.
Pour it over the pickles.
Let them stand for 24 hours more.
Dry each pickle.
Pack and seal
Place them in a clean jar.
Boil fresh vinegar (same quantity) with ½ pound of sugar, 1 ounce of whole pepper, 1 ounce of whole allspice, 1 ounce of whole cloves, and ½ ounce of alum.
Pour the mixture over the pickles.
Seal the jar tightly.
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).
-
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together501 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
-
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 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
- Are the pickles themselves, softened and seasoned by the salt and vinegar soaks.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the first brine.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavor.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
- Alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm rather than going soft during pickling.
The step that matters
Drying the cucumbers before the final vinegar. Each pickle must be dried before going into the clean jar, so excess liquid does not dilute the final vinegar mixture and weaken its preserving acidity.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, pepper, allspice, clove):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Horseradishfits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper, allspice, clove. 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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