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Preserve

Preserved Cucumbers

A method of preserving cucumbers in a sweet syrup with alum and clarified sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,112 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Preserved Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Split the cucumbers and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in saltwater for three days.

  3. Transfer the cucumbers to cold water with a small amount of alum.

  4. Boil the cucumbers until tender.

  5. Drain the cucumbers.

Syrup and pickling

  1. Let the cucumbers sit in a thin syrup for two days.

  2. Reboil the syrup.

  3. Pour the syrup over the cucumbers.

  4. Repeat pouring the syrup twice more.

  5. Boil clarified sugar until it forms small sparks when blown through.

  6. Add the cucumbers to the sugar.

  7. Simmer for five minutes.

  8. Let the mixture sit overnight.

  9. Boil again before storing.

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. Cucumber + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,112 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
The main vegetable that is softened and turned into the pickled product.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers during the saltwater soak, firming and seasoning them.
Alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm during cooking by strengthening their cell walls.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and, in the syrup, preserves the cucumbers.

The step that matters

Boil the cucumbers until tender. Cooking must be stopped at the right point: undercooked cucumbers stay hard, while overcooking makes them mushy. Alum in the water helps them keep their shape during this boil.

“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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