Skip to main content
Main

Cold Cucumber Pickle

A pickle made by salting cucumbers and onions, then adding mustard seed, black pepper, and vinegar, left to mature for three days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cucumber and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the vegetables

  1. Sprinkle three-quarters of a pound of salt on three dozen large cucumbers and eight large white onions, then put them in a colander and drain for twelve hours.

Season and pickle

  1. Take a teacup of white mustard seed and one-half teacup of ground black pepper, mix with the cucumbers and cover with vinegar.

  2. Keep the mixture fastened air-tight for three days.

  3. Pare and slice the cucumbers, skin and slice the onions.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

66Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
15 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 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
Salting draws out water, leaving the cucumbers firmer and crisper in the finished pickle.
White onions
Adds sharp, aromatic flavour to the pickle.
Ground black pepper
Adds pungent heat and aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Draining the salted vegetables for twelve hours. Salt pulls water out of the cucumbers and onions. If they are not drained well, the excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and leaves the pickles soft and watery.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes