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Cucumber Pickles

A method for pickling cucumbers using salt, vinegar, cloves, allspice, alum, and optional sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cover cucumbers with water and add salt.

  2. In the morning, drain the water.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Measure out the same amount of vinegar as water used.

  2. Combine vinegar, cloves, allspice, and alum in a pot and heat until boiling.

  3. Add sugar to the vinegar for sweet pickles, if desired.

Pickle

  1. Pour the boiling mixture over the cucumbers.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cucumber + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Allspice + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cucumber + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Are the main vegetable that is salted, softened and pickled in the brine.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them before pickling.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Whole cloves
Add a warm, spiced aroma to the pickling liquid.
Allspice
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the pickling liquid.
Alum
Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during pickling.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling mixture over the cucumbers. The liquid must be fully boiling so the vinegar and spices are hot enough to penetrate the cucumbers evenly. Cooling or uneven heat can leave pickles soft or poorly preserved.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cider, vinegar, clove, allspice, sugar):

  1. Chickpeafits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cider, vinegar, clove, allspice, sugar. 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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