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Green Cucumber Pickle

Pickled cucumbers with vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Green Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine equal parts vinegar and water in a large container and add the piece of alum.

  2. Cover the cucumbers with grape leaves while they soak.

  3. Peel and slice the onions, then scald them with boiling water.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, stir the brown sugar and spices into the boiling vinegar.

Pack and seal

  1. Mix the cucumbers and onions in jars, then pour the hot vinegar mixture over them. Seal the jars once filled.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the body of the pickles, becoming crisp and tender as they soak and brine.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and body to the jars.
Black mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavour to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the packed jars. The vinegar must be hot and the acidity sufficient so the pickles are preserved and sealed safely; weak or cool liquid lets spoilage microbes grow.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, cider, vinegar, mustard, ginger, celery. 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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