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Cucumber Pickles

A method for pickling cucumbers in a vinegar brine with sugar, spices, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Pour hot salt brine over cucumbers and let stand overnight.

  2. In the morning, rinse cucumbers in clear water.

  3. Mix one part vinegar with two parts water to cover cucumbers, bring to a boil. Drop in cucumbers and let scald for five minutes, then drain and put in cans.

Make the pickling syrup and seal

  1. In a pot, combine white wine vinegar, sugar, mixed spices, chopped red pepper, and alum, and bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers in cans and seal.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 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

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming crisp-tender after brining and scalding.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness in the pickling liquid.
Alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm during pickling by hardening their tissue.

The step that matters

Scalding the cucumbers in the vinegar-water mix. Scalding for only the stated five minutes matters: too long softens the cucumbers, and the brine must cover them so they heat evenly and the pickle stays firm.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, white wine, 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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