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Uncooked Pickles

A pickled cucumber recipe using salt, alum, olive oil, and vinegar, prepared in jars without cooking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Uncooked Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the pickles into ¼ inch thick slices.

  2. Pack the slices in quart jars with thinly sliced onions and one hot red pepper per jar.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and fill the jars with water.

  4. Add ½ teaspoon of pulverized alum.

Soak and pack

  1. Let the jars stand overnight, then drain and rinse the contents.

  2. Refill the jars with pickles, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and fill with sharp vinegar.

  3. Seal the 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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Pickles
Form the bulk of the jar and supply the crisp, briny texture of the finished pickle.
Onions
Add pungent flavor and a little sweetness that mellows as the pickle sits.
Salt
Draws water out of the pickle slices and seasons the brine.
Pulverized alum
Helps the pickle slices stay firm and crisp during brining.
Sharp vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their tang.

The step that matters

Soaking overnight, then draining and rinsing. Soaking in salted water pulls moisture out of the slices and firms them. Rinsing before repacking removes excess salt and alum so the final brine tastes balanced rather than harsh.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, olive, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, 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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