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To Pickle Cucumbers

A method for pickling cucumbers in vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

To Pickle Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the cucumbers in a colander and place them in a jar.

  2. Cover the cucumbers with white wine vinegar and let them stand for four hours.

Make the pickle

  1. Pour the vinegar into a saucepan and boil it with a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Add mace, whole pepper, and sliced ginger to the cucumbers.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers.

  4. Cover the jar tightly and let it cool.

  5. Seal the jar.

  6. The pickles will be ready to eat in two to three days.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together973 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mace + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Are the main vegetable that is softened and flavoured by the vinegar brine.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Fresh ginger
Adds aroma and a warm, spicy flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers. The vinegar must be hot enough to pour over the cucumbers without cracking the jar. Sealing the jar while the brine is still very hot helps create a vacuum as it cools, which supports keeping the pickles stable.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Peppermintfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, white wine, vinegar, pepper, 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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