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Vinegar Pickles, or Gherkins

A cucumber pickle made with vinegar, sugar, water, and spices, optionally with peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Vinegar Pickles, or Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickles

  1. Salt the pickles and let them sit for 24 hours, then drain and dry them.

  2. Ensure all pickles are sound and place them in a large jar.

Make the brine

  1. Boil 1 gallon of vinegar with 1 cup of sugar and 1 pint of water.

  2. Tie pickling spices in a bag and boil with the vinegar.

  3. If desired, add a few peppers among the pickles for heat.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour the boiling vinegar over the pickles, cover with a cloth, and place a plate on top to keep them submerged.

  2. Check the pickles in two weeks; if needed, boil the vinegar again.

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,112 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pickles (cucumbers)
The main food being preserved; salting and drying first firm them for pickling.
Vinegar
Acidity preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp, tangy flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Pickling spices
Add aroma and flavor to the vinegar brine as it boils.

The step that matters

Keep the pickles fully submerged in the vinegar. Pickles exposed above the brine can spoil or mold, because the acidic liquid is what preserves them. A plate on top holds them under the surface.

Swap the cucumber

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

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

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