Skip to main content
Drink

Cucumber Vinegar

A vinegar infused with cucumbers, onions, shallots, salt, pepper, and cayenne, left to steep and then strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

  1. Pare and slice the cucumbers, put them in a stone jar or wide-mouthed bottle with the vinegar; slice the onions and shallots, and add them, with all the other ingredients, to the cucumbers.

  2. Let it stand four or five days; boil it all up, and when cold, strain the liquor through a piece of muslin, and store it away in small bottles well sealed.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

75Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
16 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + 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. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 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 bulk of the flavour and crisp texture that the vinegar soaks into.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid that extracts and carries the flavours of the vegetables.
Onions
Add pungency and savoury depth to the infused liquor.
Shallots
Add a milder onion-like aroma and sharpness to the liquor.

The step that matters

Boil it all up after standing. Boiling after the cucumbers have steeped for several days pasteurises the liquid so it keeps well in sealed bottles. Sealing the bottles tightly keeps air and spoilage organisms out during storage.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

Raspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesCucumber PicklesCucumber Pickles25 recipesSugar VinegarSugar Vinegar20 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipes