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Dessert

To Pickle Gerkins, or French Beans

A method for pickling gherkins using saltwater, vinegar, spices, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Pickle Gerkins, or French Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Mix 2 pounds of coarse sea salt into 1 gallon of spring water.

  2. Soak the gherkins in the saltwater for 2 hours, then drain them well.

Make the pickling liquor

  1. Combine 1 gallon of white wine vinegar, ½ ounce cloves, ½ ounce mace, 1 ounce allspice, 1 ounce mustard seed, 1 stick horseradish, 6 bay leaves, a little dill, 2-3 pieces ginger, 1 nutmeg, and a handful of salt in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Pour the boiling mixture over the drained gherkins.

  4. Cover the gherkins tightly and let them sit for 24 hours.

Finish and jar

  1. Simmer the gherkins over low heat until they turn green, being careful not to let them boil.

  2. Transfer the gherkins to a jar.

  3. Seal the jar tightly until cool.

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. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Horseradish + dilltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Mustard + dilltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together560 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Gherkins
Are the main vegetable that is firmed, flavoured and turned green during pickling.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the gherkins and seasons them before pickling.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, warm flavour that infuses into the pickling liquor.

The step that matters

Simmer the gherkins without boiling. Boiling can soften the cucumbers and make them mushy, while gentle simmering over low heat lets them turn green and firm up without breaking down.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, clove, allspice, mustard, horseradish, dill):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, clove, allspice, mustard, horseradish, dill. 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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