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Cucumbers

A pickled cucumber recipe using vinegar, herbs, and a brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vinegar pickles

  1. Wash the cucumbers with a clean cloth.

  2. Place small onions, garlic, and herbs in jars with the cucumbers.

  3. Pour enough vinegar into a saucepan to cover the cucumbers and bring it to a boil.

  4. Pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers and let it cool.

  5. Cover the jars with wet parchment and tie them securely to ensure they are airtight.

  6. Check the pickles occasionally; if the vinegar turns white, discard it and the spices except for the onions.

  7. Replace with fresh ingredients and cover again with boiling vinegar, then tie the parchment over the jars.

Make the brine pickles

  1. Pack cucumbers in a clean barrel or crock with cherry, vine, and walnut leaves, and add dill.

  2. Prepare a weak brine with water and salt, pour it over the cucumbers to submerge them.

  3. Cover with a plate or block of wood and weigh it down.

  4. Keep in a warm place until bubbles form, then move to a cool location.

  5. The pickles will be ready to eat in one month.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Cucumber + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Tarragon + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Clove + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Acidifies the brine, preserving the cucumbers and giving them their sharp, tangy flavour.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and creates the brine that keeps them firm and safe.
Small smooth-skinned cucumbers
Provide the main body and crisp texture of the pickles.
Small onions
Contribute mild sweetness and aroma as they soften in the vinegar.
Cherry, vine, and walnut leaves
Contain tannins that help the cucumbers stay crisp during pickling.

The step that matters

Keeping the vinegar and jars sealed and clean. Vinegar that turns white signals spoilage, and loose covers let air and microbes in. Discarding and refreshing the vinegar prevents the pickles from going bad.

Swap the sour cherry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, clove, garlic, tarragon, vinegar, walnut):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Sour cherrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, clove, garlic, tarragon, vinegar, walnut. 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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