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Cucumbers, a Beautiful Preserve

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cucumbers, a Beautiful Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak finely-sliced cucumbers in a weak saltwater solution for 2 days, changing the water twice.

  2. Soak cucumbers in fresh water for another 2 days.

  3. Green the cucumbers as directed for pickles and sprinkle with a bit of alum.

  4. Scald and cool the cucumbers until they turn a fine green.

  5. Boil cucumbers for a few minutes with fresh vine or cabbage leaves above and below them.

  6. Cool the cucumbers, cut a piece from the flat side, and scrape out the seeds and pulp.

  7. Dry the cucumbers gently with a cloth.

  8. Stuff each cucumber with bruised cloves, sliced ginger, lemon rind, mace, and white peppercorns, then tie the cut piece back on with narrow tape.

  9. Prepare clarified sugar equal to the weight of the cucumbers and pour it over them when cool.

  10. Press down with a plate and weight to keep them submerged for 2 days.

  11. Boil the syrup, adding half more clarified sugar, and repeat the soaking and boiling process three times over two weeks.

  12. Finally, add the juice and grated zest of 2 lemons for every 6 cucumbers, boil for 10 minutes, and then jar them.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, clove, ginger, lemon, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, clove, ginger, lemon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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