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 Pickle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Place freshly picked cucumbers in a jar and cover with boiling water.
Seal the jar tightly and let it sit for 24 hours.
The next morning, drain the cucumbers.
Make the brine and pickle
In a pot, combine vinegar, salt, mustard, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and pulverized alum.
If desired, add sugar to the mixture.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour the boiling mixture over the cucumbers and cover immediately.
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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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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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
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sharp flavor.
- Cucumbers (in the method)
- Provide the crisp main body of the pickles that takes on the brine's flavor.
- Pulverized alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during pickling.
- Cloves
- Add warm, aromatic spice flavor to the brine.
- Cinnamon
- Adds sweet, warm aroma and flavor to the brine.
- Allspice
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the brine.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling mixture over the cucumbers and cover immediately. Pouring boiling brine over the cucumbers and sealing at once keeps the heat in and helps the pickles stay hot enough to be preserved, reducing the risk of spoilage from microbes that survive in cooler liquid.
“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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