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Preserve

Cucumber Mangoes

Whole green cucumbers are stuffed with horseradish, mustard seed, garlic, and peppercorns, then pickled in spiced vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard 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 ↓

Cucumber Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut a piece out of the side of each cucumber and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak cucumbers in a strong brine for 8-9 days, stirring 2-3 times daily until they turn yellow.

  3. Place cucumbers in a brass pan with vine leaves underneath and on top.

  4. Mix finely beaten roche alum into the brine and pour it over the cucumbers.

  5. Cook on a very low heat for 4-5 hours until they are a good green color.

  6. Remove cucumbers and drain them on a sieve, then wipe them dry.

Stuff and pickle

  1. When cool, stuff cucumbers with horseradish, mustard seed, garlic, peppercorns, and small cucumber slices.

  2. Sew the cut piece back onto the cucumber with needle and thread.

  3. Prepare the pickle by boiling vinegar with mace, cloves, ginger, black pepper, mustard seed, garlic, and horseradish for 5 minutes.

  4. Pour the hot pickle over the stuffed cucumbers, seal the jar, and top up with vinegar as needed.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Large green cucumbers
Form the pickle body, which firms and turns green during the alum and low-heat treatment.
Strong brine
Draws out moisture and salt, softening the cucumbers and preparing them to absorb flavour.
Roche alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp through the long brining and cooking.
Vinegar (1 gallon)
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives its sharp flavour.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and flavour that infuses the cucumbers and pickle.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour to the stuffing and the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking on a very low heat. Heat that is too high or too long can soften the cucumbers to mush and turn them dull. A very low, steady heat lets them hold their firmness and set a good green colour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, horseradish, mustard, garlic, vinegar, clove, ginger):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, horseradish, mustard, garlic, vinegar, clove, 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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