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Cucumber Pickle

A cucumber pickle made by boiling sugar and spices with vinegar and submerging cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and spices in a kettle with 4 pints of strong vinegar.

  2. Boil for half an hour, then allow to cool.

  3. Add 6 pints of cold vinegar.

Pack and store

  1. Ensure the jar is full and the pickles are submerged in vinegar.

  2. Cover tightly and store in a dry place.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the pickles themselves, absorbing the sweet spiced vinegar to become flavourful.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickles, and carries the spices.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the brine.
Ginger
Adds a warm, pungent aroma and slight heat to the brine.

The step that matters

Ensure the jar is full and the pickles are submerged in vinegar. Vinegar acts as the preservative barrier. Any pickle left above the liquid can spoil or mould, so the cucumbers must stay fully covered during storage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, celery, clove):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, celery, clove. 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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