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Preserve

Preserved Cucumbers

A method for pickling cucumbers in a vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 274 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Preserved Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare the cucumbers and cut each into four or five pieces, removing the seeds.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in a bowl of cold water with a little coarse sea salt.

Blanch and rest

  1. Boil 1 gallon of water in a copper basin, then add the cucumbers.

  2. Cook until half done, then remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes.

Can and process

  1. Drain the cucumbers on a cloth and place them in quart cans.

  2. Cover the cucumbers with cold boiled water lightly salted.

  3. Seal the cans and boil them in a hot water bath for 1 hour.

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 + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + tarragontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Wine + tarragontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together521 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Cucumber + winetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together485 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
Form the main body of the pickles and soften into a tender, crisp-to-tender texture when heated.
Wine or cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickles their sharp, tangy flavor and helps preserve them.
Tarragon sprigs
Adds a distinct herbal aroma to the pickled cucumbers.

The step that matters

Cook until half done, then let sit. Heat softens the cucumbers' cell walls, and overcooking breaks them down into mush. Stopping at half done and letting the residual heat finish the softening over 30 minutes gives more even, firmer results.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, wine, tarragon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, wine, tarragon. 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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