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To Pickle Gherkins

A method for pickling gherkin cucumbers in a vinegar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Pickle Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Pour boiling saltwater over gherkins.

  2. Let them sit overnight.

Pack and pickle

  1. Wash jars with vinegar.

  2. Drain each gherkin.

  3. Pack gherkins into jars.

  4. Boil vinegar with mace, whole pepper, horseradish, mustard, and salt.

  5. Pour boiling vinegar over gherkins.

  6. Cover the jars.

  7. Let them sit until the next day.

  8. If gherkins are not sufficiently green, boil the vinegar again within two weeks.

  9. Repack the jars.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Gherkin cucumbers
Form the body of the pickle; the salt and vinegar soften and flavor their flesh.
Vinegar
Adds the sour acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve it.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the pickling liquid.
Whole black pepper
Adds a mild, aromatic heat that infuses the pickling vinegar.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that balances the sourness of the vinegar.
Mustard
Adds a tangy, pungent sharpness to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Pour boiling saltwater over the gherkins and leave them overnight. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers through osmosis, firming their texture and letting them absorb the vinegar later. Using fully boiling brine ensures the salt dissolves completely and the process is consistent.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, pepper, horseradish, mustard. 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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