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Cucumbers, or Girkins

Cucumbers preserved by repeated boiling in syrup and saltwater.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and ginger work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 973 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumbers, or Girkins

Ingredients

Directions

Soak and drain

  1. Soak cucumbers in saltwater for three days.

  2. Drain cucumbers.

  3. Scald cucumbers in fresh water.

  4. Let cucumbers sit overnight.

  5. Drain cucumbers again.

Cook in syrup

  1. Place cucumbers in a pan with 2 quarts of water and ½ pint of syrup.

  2. Boil over low heat for five minutes.

  3. Let cucumbers sit until the next day.

  4. Boil cucumbers again.

  5. Drain the syrup.

  6. Boil syrup in a clean pan to a proper thickness.

  7. Add cucumbers to the syrup and boil gently for 15 minutes.

  8. Transfer cucumbers to a flat pan.

  9. Cover cucumbers and let sit for two days.

  10. Drain syrup.

  11. Boil syrup for 2-3 minutes.

  12. Pour boiled syrup over cucumbers.

  13. Repeat this process for five or six days.

Pack and store

  1. Pack cucumbers in pots and cover with a bladder.

  2. Include a few pieces of ginger in each pot for added flavor.

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 + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together973 recipes

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

  2. Syrup + gingertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Syrup + cucumbertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Main vegetable that becomes firm and crisp-tender as it is repeatedly soaked and heated in syrup.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and, once thickened by boiling, coats the cucumbers and helps preserve them.
Salt water
Draws moisture out of the cucumbers during the initial soak, helping them firm up.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup to the proper thickness. Syrup that is too thin will not coat and preserve the cucumbers well, while overboiling can make it too thick and sugary. Repeated boiling and draining also concentrates the syrup over several days.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, cucumber):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Peppermintfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Dillfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, cucumber. 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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