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To Pickle Cucumbers

A method for pickling cucumbers in wine 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 the cucumbers

  1. Wash the cucumbers and let them drain in a colander for four hours.

  2. Place the cucumbers in a jar and cover them with wine vinegar; let stand for four hours.

Make and add the pickling liquid

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

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

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers, cover tightly, and let cool.

  4. Once cool, tie the jar down.

Rest

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

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

  5. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, watery vegetable body that the brine flavours and preserves.
Wine vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cucumbers and seasons the brine.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers. The vinegar must be hot and the jar sealed while cooling so the acid and heat reduce microbial growth and the cucumbers take up flavour. Pouring it too cool or leaving the jar open invites spoilage.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, 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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