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Oil Cucumbers

A pickled cucumber recipe using oil, mustard seed, white pepper, celery seed, mace, onions, red peppers, vinegar, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Oil Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice cucumbers thinly, layer them in a jar, sprinkling with ½ pint of coarse sea salt, and let them sit overnight or for 1–2 days.

  2. Drain the water.

Layer and pack

  1. Add a thin layer of cucumber slices, 2 thin onion slices, a little red pepper, a blade of mace, a sprinkle of mustard seed, white pepper, and celery seed, and 2 tablespoons of oil.

  2. Repeat the layering process until the jar is full, finishing with best vinegar.

Cure

  1. Let the pickles sit for 2 months before using.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp body of the pickle, which salt draws water out of before layering.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers, firming them and helping preserve the pickle.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during the long rest.
Best vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the jar.
Best salad oil
Adds fat and a mild richness that coats the cucumber layers.

The step that matters

Draining after the salt rest. Cucumbers release a lot of water under salt. If the water is not fully drained before layering, the pickles will be diluted and may lose crispness and flavour.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, mustard, celery, mace, onion, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, mustard, celery, mace, onion, pepper, 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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