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Cucumber Mangoes

A pickled cucumber recipe with brine, vine leaves, and spices.

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.

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

  4. Mix finely beaten rock alum with the brine and pour over cucumbers.

  5. Cook on a very low heat for 4‑5 hours until they turn a good green.

  6. Remove cucumbers and drain them on a sieve, then wipe 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 sliced horseradish for 5 minutes.

  4. Pour the hot pickle over the stuffed cucumbers and seal the jar.

  5. Top off the jar with more 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 main body of the pickle, which turns green during cooking.
Strong brine
Draws out moisture and seasons the cucumbers during the long soak.
Roche alum
Helps the cucumbers keep a firm texture and a bright green colour.
Vinegar (1 gallon)
Provides the sour acidity that preserves and flavours the pickle.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that flavours the pickle.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the stuffing and the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking in the alum brine on very low heat. Alum firms the cucumber flesh and helps it hold green. Too much heat or too long a cook can soften the cucumbers and turn them dull, so keeping the heat very low matters.

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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