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Cucumber Catsup

A pickled cucumber relish made with cucumbers, vinegar, salt, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the cucumbers.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and let sit for 12 hours.

  3. Drain the cucumbers and rinse with cold water.

Cook and bottle

  1. Combine cucumbers with vinegar and spices in a pot.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Pour into sterilized bottles 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the bulk of the relish and supply its crisp, fresh texture.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers, firming them and reducing excess liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the relish its tangy flavour and helps preserve it.
Mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp aroma and flavour to the spiced liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Simmering long enough lets the spices and vinegar flavour the cucumbers while stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot. The vinegar's acidity helps keep the finished relish stable for storage.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, pepper, allspice, clove. 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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