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To Pickle Cucumbers

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 501 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

To Pickle Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place fresh small cucumbers in a pan and pour hot brine over them.

  2. Cover and let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Strain the cucumbers into a colander and dry them between two cloths.

  4. Boil white wine vinegar with allspice, then pour it over the cucumbers.

  5. Add a little coarse sea salt and a few bay leaves.

  6. Simmer the cucumbers in the pickle, then transfer them and the liquid into jars.

  7. Cover each jar with a bladder.

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 + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Cucumber + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 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

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

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

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