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To Pickle Cucumbers

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pickle Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Pour boiling hot water mixed with coarse sea salt over the cucumbers in a jar and cover tightly. Let them sit overnight.

  2. The next day, stir gently, then drain and dry the cucumbers with a cloth.

  3. In a pot, combine good vinegar, sliced ginger, Cayenne pepper, and black pepper. Bring to a boil.

  4. Add the cucumbers to the boiling pickle, cover, and boil for 3 minutes.

  5. Transfer the cucumbers to a jar with the pickle and cover tightly.

  6. Once cooled, add a sprig of dill with the seed side down.

  7. If the cucumbers are not green enough, boil the pickle again the next day and pour it over the cucumbers immediately.

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. Cucumber + dilltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + dilltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + dilltop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together87 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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, pepper, dill):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, pepper, dill. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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