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Cucumber Pickles

A brined and vinegar pickled cucumber recipe with green peppers, onions, black peppercorns, allspice, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the cucumbers

  1. In a large container, mix the water and coarse sea salt.

  2. Add the cucumbers and let them sit in the salt for 3 days.

  3. After 3 days, pour off the brine, boil it, skim off any foam, and pour it back over the cucumbers while hot.

  4. Let the cucumbers sit for another 3 days.

  5. Repeat the boiling and pouring process again, then let them sit for 3 more days.

  6. Remove the cucumbers and pour boiling water over them; let them sit overnight.

Pack and pickle

  1. Wipe the cucumbers dry and place them in a jar.

  2. Boil enough vinegar to cover the cucumbers, then add green peppers, onions, black peppercorns, allspice, and a bit of alum.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar over the cucumbers, weigh them down, and seal the jar tightly.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Firm flesh that the brine and vinegar gradually soften and flavour as they cure.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brine stage.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp, tangy flavour.
Alum
Helps keep the cucumbers firm and crisp through the long soaking.

The step that matters

Repeated brine boiling and pouring. Each hot brine pour helps draw out water and reduce spoilage organisms. Skimming foam keeps the brine clean. Repeating the cycle matters for a firm, safely preserved pickle.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, pepper, allspice. 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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