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Obbsn Pickled Cucumbers

A pickled cucumber recipe using a saltwater brine, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Obbsn Pickled Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the cucumbers

  1. Gather small cucumbers with a short stem.

  2. Soak them in a saltwater brine strong enough to float an egg for three days, covering with a flannel rag to absorb scum.

  3. Each morning, wash off the scum.

  4. On the third day, pour the brine into a clean brass kettle and bring it to a boil.

  5. Pour the hot brine over the pickles for three consecutive mornings.

  6. After the last day, let the pickles drain on dishes.

Pickle and seal

  1. In a porcelain kettle, add enough vinegar to cover the pickles.

  2. Add allspice, cloves, cinnamon, mace, green pepper, horseradish, ginger, mustard seeds, and sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture well and pour it hot over the pickles, then seal tightly.

  4. Once completely cool, check the vinegar level and add more if necessary to fill the jar.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + horseradishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt
Forms the brine that draws water out of the cucumbers and firms them.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and rounds out the sweetness of the pickles.
Cucumbers
Form the body of the pickle, and their firm texture is kept by the repeated brining.

The step that matters

Repeated hot brine pours. Pouring the brine over the pickles for three mornings draws out water and scum while keeping the cucumbers firm. Skipping days or letting scum build up can leave the pickles soft or spoiled.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, pepper, horseradish):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, pepper, horseradish. 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.

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