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Small Cucumber Pickle

Pickled small cucumbers with mustard seeds, celery seed, olive oil, sugar, and hot vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Small Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and let them stand overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the cucumbers well.

Assemble and pickle

  1. Mix the mustard seeds, celery seed, olive oil, and sugar thoroughly.

  2. Add the mixture to the cucumbers and cover with hot vinegar.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Small cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickles, which soften and take on the brine flavor.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers, firming them and helping them keep their crunch.
White mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that mellows as the pickles stand in the vinegar.
Olive oil
Carries the spices and coats the cucumbers, adding richness and mouthfeel.
Hot vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives them their tang.

The step that matters

Drain the cucumbers well in the morning. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers overnight, but any water left on them dilutes the vinegar and softens the pickles, so they should be thoroughly drained before the seasoning is added.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, mustard, coffee, olive, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, mustard, coffee, olive, sugar, 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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