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Pickled Cucumbers

A method of preserving cucumbers in vinegar with spices and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pickled Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and drain the cucumbers.

  2. If not pickling all cucumbers at once, soak them in cold water for 24 hours before pickling.

Pack and cover

  1. In a jar, layer cucumbers, allspice, cloves, horseradish, and mustard seed.

  2. Continue layering until the jar is full.

  3. Pour in enough vinegar to cover the cucumbers.

  4. Add 2 teaspoons of pulverized alum to the jar.

Check

  1. Check the jars in a day or two and add more vinegar if needed.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
The main vegetable that becomes crisp-tender as it pickles in the vinegar.
Good vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sharp flavor.
Pulverized alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during pickling.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickling liquid.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickles.

The step that matters

Keep the cucumbers fully covered with vinegar. Cucumbers that poke above the liquid can spoil and soften, because exposed surfaces are not protected by the acid. Checking after a day or two and topping up the vinegar keeps every piece submerged as the level drops.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, allspice, horseradish, mustard, 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.

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