Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓
Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Select small, unbruised cucumbers and wash them in cold water.
Make a brine with salt and water strong enough to float an egg and cover the cucumbers.
Place a cloth over the cucumbers, press down with a lid, and weigh it down.
Let them sit in the brine for about nine days until they turn yellow.
Wash the cucumbers in cold water and discard any soft or bruised ones.
Green the cucumbers
In a preserving kettle, cover the cucumbers with hot water and add vine leaves or cabbage leaves.
Place a plate on top and keep them hot without simmering until they turn green.
Pack and seal in jars
Layer cucumbers in jars with allspice, cloves, horseradish, and mustard seed.
Cover with vinegar and add 1 teaspoon of pulverized alum to each jar.
Check after a couple of days and top off with vinegar if needed.
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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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together212 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Radish + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together297 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,281 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Small cucumbers
- Provide the crisp body that the pickling liquid is absorbed into.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers during the brine and firms their texture.
- Vinegar
- Supplies the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives them their sharp flavour.
- Pulverized alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during pickling.
- Horse-radish
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the pickles.
The step that matters
Keeping the cucumbers hot without simmering until they turn green. Water kept just below boiling helps the cucumbers take up green colour from the leaves while staying firm. Boiling softens the cucumber flesh and can make the pickles mushy.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, allspice, horse, radish, mustard, vinegar):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Turmericfits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, allspice, horse, radish, mustard, vinegar. 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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