Why it works: Cucumber and cider work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 572 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Do not use metal vessels for pickling.
If boiling vinegar, use a porcelain kettle or stone crock.
Add a tiny piece of alum to scalded cucumbers or gherkins to make them crisp.
Use the best cider or white wine vinegar, boiling it for no more than 5-6 minutes to maintain strength.
Store pickles in stone or glass jars, ensuring vinegar completely covers them.
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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Cucumber + cidertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together572 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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