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To Pickle Cucumbers, &C

A method for pickling small cucumbers in a brine and vinegar mixture with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Cucumbers, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Soak the jerkins in a strong brine of salt and water for three days.

  2. Wipe the jerkins dry.

  3. Place the jerkins in stone jars.

Pickle and store

  1. Combine vinegar, whole ginger, black pepper, mace, allspice, cloves, horseradish slices, peeled onions, eschalots, and garlic in a preserving pan until it covers the cucumbers.

  2. Boil the mixture for ten minutes.

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers.

  4. Cover the jars with cabbage leaves and a plate.

  5. Place the jars in a warm place.

  6. Drain the liquid from the jars.

  7. Boil the liquid again.

  8. Pour the hot liquid over the cucumbers.

  9. Boil the vinegar again.

  10. Pour the hot vinegar over the cucumbers.

  11. Cover the jars with bladder and white leather.

  12. Store the jars 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Jerkins
Small cucumbers that are the main vegetable being preserved in the brine and vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brining stage.
Whole ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Peeled onions
Add sweetness and savoury flavour that mellows into the pickling liquid.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Soaking the jerkins in strong brine. The brine must be strong enough and last the full three days, because salt draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture while limiting spoilage. A weak or short soak leaves them soft and more prone to spoiling.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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