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Greex Cucumber Pickles

A cucumber pickle made with coarse sea salt, mild vinegar, and alum, packed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Greex Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the small cucumbers in cold water.

  2. Pack the cucumbers tightly in glass fruit jars.

Make the brine

  1. In a pot, combine 1 cup of coarse sea salt and 4 quarts of mild vinegar; bring to a boil.

  2. Once boiling, add a small lump of alum and let the mixture cool.

Pour and seal

  1. Pour the cooled mixture over the cucumbers in the jars and seal.

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 + 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

Small cucumbers
Form the pickled vegetable that absorbs the brine flavor and firm crunch.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons the brine.
Mild vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickles.
Alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during pickling.

The step that matters

Let the brine cool before pouring. Pouring hot brine over cucumbers softens their texture and can cook them slightly, so they lose crispness. Cooling the mixture first keeps the cucumbers firm.

“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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