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To Preserve Cucumbers

A method for preserving cucumbers by pickling them in a sweet and sour brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Preserve Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Soak fresh large gherkins in a mixture of salt and water for 2 days.

  2. Drain and wipe the gherkins dry.

  3. Place the gherkins in jars.

Pickle and make the syrup

  1. Boil equal parts sugar, vinegar, and water.

  2. Pour the boiled mixture over the gherkins.

  3. Cover the jars and set them in a warm place.

  4. Boil the liquid again.

  5. Pour the boiled liquid over the gherkins for 3 consecutive days.

  6. Take 1 quart of the liquid, add cloves, mace, ginger, and lemon peel, and boil for 30 minutes.

  7. Strain the mixture.

  8. Add plenty of sifted sugar.

  9. Clarify the mixture with egg whites if needed.

  10. Boil the mixture until it reaches a strong syrup consistency.

  11. Pour the syrup over the gherkins.

  12. Seal the jars 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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mace + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh large gherkins
The main vegetable, which softens and becomes pickled as it soaks in salted water and brine.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as a thick syrup, helps preserve and glaze the pickles.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that makes the pickling liquid sour and helps preserve the gherkins.
Egg whites
Used to clarify the spiced syrup, binding impurities so they can be removed for a clear result.

The step that matters

Boiling the liquid repeatedly over 3 days. Repeated pouring of boiling liquid over the gherkins draws out moisture and lets the brine and sugar penetrate gradually, so the pickle stays firm and flavorful rather than tough or under-seasoned.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, clove, ginger, lemon, egg. 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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