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Cucumbers. Maniere De Faire Les Cornichons

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Fennel and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 134 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Cucumbers. Maniere De Faire Les Cornichons

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash the gherkin cucumbers thoroughly in fresh water to remove any down.

  2. Place the cleaned gherkins in an earthen pot with a little garlic, a small handful of sea fennel, tarragon, and long pepper.

  3. Heat the vinegar without boiling it and pour it over the gherkins.

  4. Cover the pot and let it sit for 2-3 days.

  5. After 2-3 days, pour off the vinegar, boil it, skim it, and pour it back over the gherkins.

  6. Repeat this process after another 3 days.

  7. On the third time, add the gherkins to the boiled and skimmed vinegar and heat until they begin to tremble, but do not boil.

  8. Quickly remove from heat and transfer the gherkins into pots.

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. Fennel + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Cucumber + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Fennel + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,216 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, fennel, tarragon, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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