Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Ripe Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Pare and cut cucumbers into strips, removing the seeds.
Soak cucumbers in a weak brine (½ cup coarse sea salt in water) for 12 hours.
Drain the brine and scald cucumbers in alum water until clear.
Wash cucumbers in cold water and drain again.
Make and pour the syrup
In a pot, combine vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace; boil the mixture.
Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers; repeat this process 2-3 times.
Bottle the pickles for storage.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Cucumber + cinnamontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together874 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 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
- Bright yellow cucumbers
- Form the pickle itself, with a firm texture that the brine and syrup transform.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers in the brine, firming them for crisper pickles.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavour.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and helps preserve the pickles.
- Alum water
- Helps keep the cucumbers firm and crisp during scalding.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm, sweet aroma to the spiced syrup.
The step that matters
Scalding in alum water until clear. Scalding too long can soften the cucumbers, while too little leaves them cloudy. Alum helps firm the cell walls so the pickles stay crisp through the later hot syrup pours.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg):
- Allspicefits better
- Clovefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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