Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Place cucumbers or gherkins in an earthenware pan and cover with boiling brine made from dissolving salt in water, using 2 ounces of salt for every pint of water.
Cover the pan with a plate and let it sit for 24 hours.
Dry and pickle
Remove the gherkins from the brine, drain in a colander, and dry between two cloths.
Prepare a pickle by combining vinegar, black peppercorns, allspice berries, sliced ginger, cayenne pepper, and salt, then let the mixture infuse for four days.
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.
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Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together501 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 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 or gherkins
- Provide the crisp, firm body that the brine and vinegar transform into a pickle.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brining period.
- White vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour.
- Black peppercorns
- Adds pungent, warm spice to the infused pickle liquid.
- Allspice berries
- Adds aromatic, warm spice notes to the pickle liquid.
The step that matters
Drying the cucumbers before pickling. Brined cucumbers hold surface water, which dilutes the vinegar and weakens the pickle. Drying them thoroughly between cloths helps the vinegar mixture stay strong and the texture stay firm.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, allspice, ginger, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, allspice, ginger, pepper. 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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