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Preserved Cucumbers

A sweet pickled cucumber preserved in a ginger-lemon syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Preserved Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Quarter large cucumbers and remove seeds. Leave small cucumbers whole.

  2. Place cucumbers in a wide-mouthed pot and cover with strong brine. Lay a cabbage leaf on top and cover the pot with paper.

  3. Set the pot in a warm place until cucumbers turn yellow.

Green and rinse

  1. Heat cucumbers in fresh salt-and-water, covered with a cabbage leaf, without boiling, until they are green.

  2. Remove from heat and let them cool in the liquid. Change to cold water several times to remove salt.

Make syrup and pickle

  1. Make syrup by boiling 1 pound of sugar, 1 ounce of scraped ginger, and lemon peel in 1 pint of water until thickened. Let it cool.

  2. Drain cucumbers, place in a jar, and pour the cooled syrup over them. Check after a few days and reheat syrup if necessary.

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 + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Cucumber + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together973 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
Form the body of the pickle, becoming firm and crisp as they are brined and greened.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, dissolved in water, forms the thick syrup that flavours the cucumbers.
Strong brine
Salt draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them before the later rinse.
Scraped ginger
Adds aroma and a warm, spicy flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Heating in salt-and-water without boiling. Boiling would soften the cucumbers and break their texture. Gentle heat keeps them firm while the green colour develops, so the liquid must stay below a boil.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Broccolifits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, sugar, ginger, lemon. 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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