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To Pickle Gherkins

A method for pickling small cucumbers or gherkins using salt, vinegar, alum, and cabbage leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 722 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Gherkins

six to eight dozen

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Gather small cucumbers or gherkins on a dry day.

  2. Soak them in cold salt-and-water for four days, covered with a cabbage leaf.

  3. Drain and place in a clean brass pan with cabbage leaves at the bottom.

Pickle

  1. Cover with equal parts vinegar and water, adding a little pounded alum and more leaves on top.

  2. Heat the mixture until scalding hot, then remove from heat.

  3. When nearly cool, reheat and repeat this process throughout the day.

  4. At night, place the gherkins in a basin with fresh leaves and the same liquid to soak overnight.

  5. The next morning, heat them twice with fresh leaves and the same liquid, then drain.

  6. For six to eight dozen, add half a pint of vinegar and enough water to cover, along with some salt, and scald as before.

  7. Drain and pour boiling water over them, then let them sit briefly before transferring to wide-mouthed bottles or stone jars.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sour acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Cabbage leaves
Lie under and over the gherkins during soaking and scalding, helping keep them submerged and evenly covered.
Pounded alum
Helps the gherkins stay firm and crisp through the repeated heating.

The step that matters

Repeated scalding. Each heating must bring the liquid to scalding hot and then cool before reheating. Heating too hard or too long can soften the gherkins, while too little heat leaves them unpreserved.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, 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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