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Cucumber Pickles

A method of preserving cucumbers in a vinegar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Make the brine

  1. Make a brine in a clean tub that can hold a small potato.

  2. Wash the cucumbers and place them in the brine. Cover with cabbage leaves and weigh them down to keep them submerged.

  3. Let them soak for as long as desired.

  4. To prepare a small batch, remove cucumbers and soak them in cold water overnight.

Heat and pack

  1. In a kettle, combine half vinegar and half water with a small piece of alum and add the cucumbers.

  2. Heat on the back of the stove without boiling, turning the cucumbers every 15 minutes.

  3. Check for doneness by breaking one; it should be green when done.

  4. Remove cucumbers and place them in a stone jar, discarding the vinegar.

  5. Add fresh vinegar along with cloves, peppercorns, and allspice.

  6. Bring to a boil and pour over the pickles in the jar, then cover.

Store

  1. They will be ready to use in a few days and can be stored for up to a year.

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. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Cucumber + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,319 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp flesh that is pickled and softened by the brine and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickles and gives their sharp flavor.
Alum
Helps firm the cucumber flesh so it stays crisp during heating.
Cloves
Add warm aromatic flavor to the finished pickles.

The step that matters

Heat without boiling. Boiling the cucumbers in the alum and vinegar solution would soften them and break down their structure. Gentle heat, turned every 15 minutes, keeps them firm and evenly flavored.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, clove, allspice. 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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