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To Pickle Gherkins

A method for pickling small cucumbers in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,152 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

To Pickle Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Gather gherkins on a dry day before frost.

  2. Remove blossoms from gherkins.

  3. Place gherkins in a stone jar.

  4. Cover them with boiling brine.

  5. Remove gherkins from the jar.

  6. Wipe them.

Pickle

  1. Layer them in a clean stone jar with bay leaves.

  2. Pour boiling vinegar mixture over gherkins.

  3. Cover with a plate.

  4. Let sit for two days.

  5. Drain vinegar.

  6. Heat it again until boiling.

  7. Add gherkins for 2-3 minutes.

  8. Pour everything back into the jar.

  9. Cover with a plate.

  10. Let cool completely.

  11. Once cool, tightly cover the jar with thick brown paper.

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. Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Gherkins
Provide the main vegetable body and crisp texture that the pickling liquid penetrates.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the gherkins and seasons the brine.
Bay leaves
Add a subtle aromatic, herbal note to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that flavours the vinegar.

The step that matters

Adding the gherkins to the boiling vinegar. Only 2-3 minutes in the hot liquid is specified; longer heating softens the gherkins, while too little leaves them underflavoured and less evenly pickled.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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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