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Cucumber Pickles

A pickled cucumber recipe using vinegar, mustard seeds, pepper, ginger, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and prepare the cucumbers.

Make the brine

  1. In a large container, combine 1 gallon of best vinegar, 5 cents worth white mustard seed, 5 cents worth black mustard seed, 5 cents worth whole black pepper, 5 cents worth dried ginger root, garlic (if using), 2 tablespoons mustard, and 1 cup salt.

  2. Add the cucumbers to the mixture.

Cure

  1. Stir the mixture three times a day for nine days.

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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the pickle itself, becoming crisp-tender and absorbing the vinegar flavour as they cure.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Salt
Seasons the brine and helps draw moisture and flavour into the cucumbers.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that develops as the seeds steep in the brine.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture during the cure. Regular stirring keeps the spices and salt evenly distributed so every cucumber cures at the same rate and the brine does not stratify into weak and strong zones.

Swap the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, mustard, pepper, ginger):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, mustard, pepper, ginger. 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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