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To Pickle Gherkins

This is a method for pickling small cucumbers or gherkins using salt, vinegar, spices, and repeated heating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Gherkins

six to eight dozen gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Soak cucumbers or gherkins in cold salt and water for four days, covering them with a cabbage leaf.

  2. Drain cucumbers and place them in a clean brass pan with cabbage leaves at the bottom.

  3. Cover cucumbers with a mixture of equal parts vinegar and water, adding a little pounded alum and more cabbage leaves on top.

  4. Heat the mixture until scalding hot, then remove the pan and let it cool slightly before reheating it several times throughout the day.

  5. At night, place cucumbers in a basin with fresh leaves and the same liquid to soak overnight.

  6. The next morning, heat cucumbers twice with fresh leaves and the same liquid, then drain them.

  7. For six to eight dozen gherkins, add ½ pint vinegar and enough water to cover them, along with coarse sea salt.

  8. Scald the mixture as before, heating it on and off until the gherkins turn a good green.

  9. Drain gherkins and pour boiling water over them, letting them sit for a short time.

Pickle and seal

  1. Transfer gherkins to wide-mouthed bottles or stone jars.

  2. Prepare a vinegar mixture by boiling vinegar with bruised nutmeg, ginger, black peppercorns, and whole allspice.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the gherkins, cover until cool, and seal with bladders.

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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cucumber + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together501 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

Small cucumbers or gherkins
Form the pickle itself, becoming crisp and green as they soak and heat in brine.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its tang.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the gherkins and seasons the brine, helping firm the texture.
Pounded alum
Helps the gherkins stay firm and crisp during repeated heating.

The step that matters

Heating the gherkins until they turn green. Heating must be repeated carefully on and off, not allowed to boil hard. Overheating softens the gherkins, while too little heat leaves them pale rather than a good green.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Radishfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, nutmeg, ginger, allspice. 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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