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Ghebkins Pickled

A pickled cucumber recipe using gherkins, spices, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ghebkins Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the gherkins

  1. Choose very green and straight gherkins. Brush and place a layer in a pan, sprinkling with coarse sea salt.

  2. Add another layer of gherkins and sprinkle with salt. Repeat until nearly a bushel is used.

  3. Leave gherkins in salt for 24 hours to draw out water. Drain and place in a jar.

Pickle and seal

  1. Add allspice, tarragon, balm, shallots, garlic, long peppers, cloves, lemon, and salt to the jar.

  2. Boil vinegar twice and pour it over the gherkins the following day.

  3. Boil vinegar a third time, pour it over the gherkins, and when cold, cover the jar with wet parchment.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Gherkins
Main vegetable; salting draws out water so the pickles stay firm and crisp.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the gherkins, firming them and preparing them to take up brine.
Vinegar
Acid that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sharp, sour flavour.
Shallots
Add mild onion flavour that mellows into the brine during pickling.
Garlic
Adds pungent aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid and gherkins.

The step that matters

Salting the gherkins for 24 hours. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers by osmosis. Enough time is needed for water to leave, which keeps the pickles firm and crisp rather than soft once vinegar is added.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, tarragon, shallot, clove, pepper, lemon, vinegar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, tarragon, shallot, clove, pepper, lemon, vinegar. 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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