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Cucumber Pickles

A method for pickling cucumbers using brine, vinegar, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Soak the cucumbers in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Drain and place them in a clean stone crock.

  3. Pour cold brine over the cucumbers until an egg floats.

  4. Let them sit in the brine for 3 days.

  5. Drain and dry on a clean towel.

Pickle

  1. Wash the stone crock.

  2. Return the cucumbers to it.

  3. Cover with pure water until the next day.

  4. Boil vinegar with minced onions, cloves, mustard seed, celery seed, and mace.

  5. Fill the jar with the boiling mixture.

  6. Add sugar, stirring the cucumbers.

  7. Cover tightly and let sit for 1 week.

  8. Scald the vinegar again and return it to the jar.

  9. Let the pickles stand for 6 weeks before using; 6 months is even better.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Small cucumbers
Form the body of the pickle, becoming crisp-textured as they cure in brine.
Brine
Draws out moisture and seasons the cucumbers, helping them firm up during curing.
Vinegar (in the method)
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sourness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that develops as the pickles age.

The step that matters

Pour cold brine until an egg floats. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg, or the salt concentration will be too low to draw out water and firm the cucumbers, leaving them soft and at risk of spoiling during the long cure.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, egg, onion, clove, mustard, celery, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, egg, onion, clove, mustard, celery, sugar. 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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