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Cucumber Pickles

Pickled cucumbers with mustard seeds, celery seed, juniper berries, green peppers, sugar, onions, vinegar, ground mustard, and chow‑chow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Brine and scald

  1. Soak the cucumbers in salt water for 3 days, covered.

  2. Boil a little alum in the vinegar and pour it over the cucumbers while hot; repeat 3 or 4 times.

Bottle

  1. When ready to bottle, add the ground mustard and the chow-chow (discarding its vinegar).

  2. Mix in enough cold vinegar to cover the pickles well.

  3. Seal in glass jars.

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
The main vegetable, which softens and absorbs the brine and vinegar as it pickles.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens flavor and keeps the pickles preserved.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
White mustard seed
Adds a mild, sharp mustard flavor to the brine.
Black mustard seed
Adds a stronger, more pungent mustard flavor.
Celery seed
Adds a savory, aromatic celery note.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot alum vinegar over the cucumbers. Alum helps firm the cucumber tissue so the pickles stay crisp rather than going soft. Repeating the hot pour lets the alum and heat penetrate the cucumbers, so each repetition matters for texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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