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Cucumber Oil Pickles

Pickled cucumbers and onions preserved in a seasoned oil and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Oil Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cucumbers and peel the onions.

  2. Salt the cucumbers and onions well and let them stand overnight.

  3. In the morning, drain them thoroughly.

Make the dressing

  1. Mix the ground white pepper, Coleman's mustard, and olive oil until smooth.

  2. Slowly add the cold cider vinegar to the mixture.

Pickle and seal

  1. Add the cucumbers and onions, and stir for a few moments.

  2. Put the mixture into cans and seal.

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

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the crisp, bulky body of the pickles that absorbs the dressing.
Small onions
Add pungent flavour and firm texture that holds up in the brine.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cucumbers and onions so they stay crisp and absorb less liquid.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and sharpens their flavour.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness that carries the flavour of the mustard and pepper.
Coleman's mustard
Contributes sharp pungency and emulsifying help to the oil and vinegar mixture.

The step that matters

Drain the salted vegetables thoroughly in the morning. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers and onions overnight. Any moisture left behind dilutes the vinegar and dressing and softens the vegetables, so draining well keeps them crisp and the pickle well flavoured.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, mustard, olive, cider, 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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