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To Pickle Gherkins

A method for pickling gherkins using a brine and vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,152 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

To Pickle Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Gather gherkins on a dry day before frost and remove blossoms.

  2. Place gherkins in a stone jar and pour boiling brine over them to cover.

  3. The next day, remove gherkins, wipe them, and layer them in a clean stone jar with bay leaves.

Make and pour the pickle

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, salt, peppercorns, ginger, and mace; bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the boiling pickle over the gherkins, cover with a plate, and let sit for two days.

Reheat and seal

  1. Drain the vinegar, reheat it until boiling, then add gherkins and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Return the mixture to the jar, cover with a plate, and let cool completely.

  3. Once cool, tightly cover the jar with thick brown paper.

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. Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Ginger + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Mace + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Gherkins
Are the vegetable being preserved, and their firm flesh holds crunch through the pickling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the gherkins and helps preserve them during the brine stages.
Vinegar
Provides the acid that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Black peppercorns
Add a warm, pungent spice note to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds a fresh, aromatic warmth that flavours the pickle.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma to the gherkins as they sit in the jar.

The step that matters

Simmering the gherkins in the reheated vinegar. Simmering only 2-3 minutes is brief; overcooking softens the gherkins and loses their crunch, while the vinegar must be fully boiling so it heats the gherkins through and helps preserve them.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, 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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