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Cucumber Vinegar

A pickled cucumber vinegar made by steeping cucumbers, onions, shallots, salt, pepper, and cayenne in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 264 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cucumber Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and slice the cucumbers.

  2. Place them in a stone jar or wide-mouthed bottle with the vinegar.

  3. Slice the onions and shallots, and add them along with the salt, pepper, and cayenne to the cucumbers.

Steep and strain

  1. Let it stand for 4 to 5 days.

  2. Boil the mixture, then let it cool.

  3. Strain the liquid through muslin and store in small, well-sealed bottles.

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 + shallottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together264 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main vegetable body and flavour that the vinegar draws out and carries.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid, extracting flavour from the vegetables and keeping the mixture stable.
Onions
Add savoury sharpness and aroma that mellow as the mixture steeps.
Shallots
Add a milder, sweeter aromatic note than onion, adding depth to the liquid.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture, then let it cool. Boiling the vinegar mixture heats it enough to kill microbes and stabilise the liquid for storage. Letting it cool before straining and bottling keeps the flavour clean and avoids sealing hot liquid into bottles, which can cause pressure buildup and weaken the seal.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, shallot, pepper. 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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