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Cucumber Pickles

A preserved cucumber dish made by layering cucumbers and horseradish, brining with salt, boiling spices and vinegar, then fermenting for two weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 the cucumbers

  1. Layer the cucumbers and horseradish in a large stone jar.

  2. Sprinkle the salt over the layers and cover with boiling water.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours in the brine.

  4. Pour off the brine and rinse the cucumbers in cold water.

Pickle

  1. Boil the spices and vinegar together, then pour over the cucumbers.

  2. Seal the jar and let the pickles sit for two weeks before using.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 pickles and absorb the brine and vinegar flavour.
Sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brine.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickles.
Alum
Helps the cucumbers keep their firmness during pickling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharp vinegar.

The step that matters

Rinsing after the brine. Rinsing removes excess salt from the cucumber surface so the pickles do not taste harsh. Pouring off the brine before pouring on the hot spiced vinegar also keeps the final liquid at the intended strength.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, allspice, pepper, clove, horseradish, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, allspice, pepper, clove, horseradish, sugar. 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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