Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Select medium small-sized cucumbers.
Prepare a brine that will float an egg and heat it until boiling. Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers and let them stand for 24 hours.
Wipe the cucumbers dry.
Pickle
Heat vinegar until boiling and pour it over the cucumbers, letting them stand for another 24 hours.
Change the vinegar, adding 1 quart of brown sugar, 1 pint of white mustard seed, a small handful of whole cloves, a small handful of cinnamon sticks, 1 piece of alum (size of an egg), and ½ cup of celery seed.
Heat the mixture until boiling and pour it over the cucumbers.
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.
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,281 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,668 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,581 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- Are the base vegetable that the brine and vinegar soak and flavour.
- Brine
- Salt draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture for pickling.
- Vinegar
- Acidity preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy taste.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
- White mustard seed
- Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour to the pickling liquid.
- Alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during pickling.
The step that matters
Wipe the cucumbers dry before the vinegar stage. Surface moisture left from the brine dilutes the vinegar and can weaken the pickle's flavour and preservation. Drying the cucumbers keeps the later vinegar soak strong and the texture firm.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, sugar, mustard, clove, cinnamon, egg):
- Allspicefits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, sugar, mustard, clove, cinnamon, egg. 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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