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To Pickle Gherkins

A method for pickling gherkins using a brine and vinegar solution with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,152 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

To Pickle Gherkins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gherkins

  1. Gather gherkins on a dry day before frost.

  2. Remove blossoms.

  3. Place gherkins in a stone jar and cover with boiling brine made from 6 oz salt and 1 quart water.

  4. Remove gherkins.

  5. Wipe them.

  6. Layer them in a clean stone jar with bay leaves.

Make and add the pickle

  1. Boil 1 quart vinegar with 1¼ oz salt, ¼ oz black peppercorns, 1½ oz ginger, and 2 blades of mace.

  2. Pour the boiling pickle over the gherkins.

  3. Cover with a plate.

  4. Let sit for two days.

  5. Drain the vinegar.

  6. Reheat it until boiling.

  7. Add the gherkins.

  8. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

  9. Pour everything back into the jar.

  10. Cover with the plate.

  11. Let cool completely.

  12. Tightly cover the jar with thick brown paper.

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. Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Gherkins
Provide the main vegetable body that softens and takes up the brine and vinegar flavour.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the gherkins and gives the pickle its sour taste.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the gherkins and seasons them during the brining stage.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling liquid.
Black peppercorns
Contribute a sharp, aromatic spice flavour to the pickle.

The step that matters

Simmer the gherkins briefly after reheating the vinegar. Simmering only 2-3 minutes heats the gherkins through without overcooking them. Boiling them too long softens the flesh and makes them limp and mushy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ginger. 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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