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Cucumber Pickles

A vinegar-based pickle made with mustard seeds, ginger, cloves, turmeric, and spices, preserved in elder vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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

Prepare the brine

  1. Mix ground mustard, white mustard seed, black mustard seed, ginger root, cloves, turmeric, brown sugar, allspice, mace, elder vinegar, celery seed, and red pepper in a bowl.

  2. Layer cucumbers in a jar with coarse sea salt.

  3. Pour hot water over the cucumbers and let them stand for 24 hours.

Pickle

  1. After 24 hours, transfer the cucumbers into the spiced vinegar mixture.

  2. Stir occasionally to prevent spices from settling.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Elder vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the cucumbers and flavours the pickling liquid.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and molasses depth that balances the sharp vinegar.
Cucumbers
The main vegetable, which softens and takes on the spiced vinegar flavour as it pickles.
Black mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp heat that deepens as the spices steep in the vinegar.
Ground mustard
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour and thickens the pickling liquid slightly.
Turmeric
Gives the pickles a bright yellow colour and a warm, earthy aroma.

The step that matters

Let the spices stay suspended while pickling. Ground spices and seeds settle to the bottom of the vinegar, so the cucumbers at the bottom can taste overly strong while those at the top stay mild. Stirring occasionally keeps the flavour even throughout the jar.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, ginger, clove, turmeric, sugar, allspice, vinegar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, ginger, clove, turmeric, sugar, allspice, 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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