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Cucumbers to Preserve

A method for preserving cucumbers in a sweet syrup with lemon rind and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cucumbers to Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Select the greenest cucumbers, some small to preserve whole and some large to cut into long slices.

  2. Soak them in strong saltwater with vine leaves in a warm place until they are preserved.

  3. Wash the cucumbers and place them in fresh water with a little coarse sea salt and fresh vine leaves.

  4. Cover the pan tightly, ensuring the cucumbers do not boil.

  5. If they are not a fine green, change the water to help them green.

  6. Once they are a good color, remove from heat and let cool.

  7. Cut the large cucumbers into quarters, removing seeds and soft parts.

  8. Soak them in cold water for two days, changing the water twice daily to remove salt.

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine 1 pound loaf sugar and ½ pint water, boil and skim well.

  2. Add the lemon rind and scraped ginger to the syrup.

  3. When the syrup is thick, remove from heat and let cool.

Preserve and store

  1. Wipe the cucumbers dry and place them in the cooled syrup.

  2. Boil the syrup every two to three days for a fortnight, adding more if necessary.

  3. When pouring syrup over cucumbers, ensure it is cold.

  4. Cover tightly and store in a dry place.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together973 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Green cucumbers
Form the preserved pieces; their firm flesh holds shape through long soaking and cooking.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the syrup and, at high concentration, helps preserve the cucumbers.
Strong salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and firms them before the sugar syrup is added.
Lemon rind
Adds aromatic citrus oils and a bright note to the syrup.
Scraped ginger
Adds warm, pungent aroma that flavours the syrup.

The step that matters

Greening the cucumbers without boiling. Holding the water just below a boil keeps the cucumbers intact, while changing the water helps the green colour set. Boiling would soften the flesh and dull the colour.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, ginger):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, 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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