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To Pickle Gherkins

A method for pickling gherkins using vinegar, salt, peppercorns, ginger, mace, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

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

  2. Place gherkins in a stone jar.

  3. Pour boiling brine over them to cover.

  4. The next day, wipe each gherkin.

  5. Layer the gherkins in a clean stone jar with a dozen bay leaves.

  6. Pour boiling vinegar over the gherkins until covered by 1-2 inches.

  7. Add salt, peppercorns, ginger, and mace to the jar.

  8. Cover with a plate and let sit for two days.

Cook and seal

  1. Drain the vinegar.

  2. Reheat the vinegar until boiling.

  3. Add gherkins to the boiling vinegar.

  4. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Pour everything back into the jar.

  6. Cover with a plate.

  7. Let cool completely.

  8. Once cool, tie thick brown paper over the jar.

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. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Vinegar + macetop 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
Main vegetable that becomes firm and crisp-tender as it pickles in brine and vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives them their sharp, tangy flavour.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.
Black peppercorns
Contribute a sharp, aromatic heat to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering the gherkins. A brief simmer in boiling vinegar softens the skins enough to take up flavour. Longer cooking makes the gherkins soft and mushy, so timing matters.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger. 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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