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Cucumber Oil Pickle

A pickled cucumber and onion mixture preserved in oil, vinegar, pepper, mustard, and salt.

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 Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Salt the sliced cucumbers and peeled onions well and let them stand overnight.

  2. 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.

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

Can and store

  1. Put the mixture into cans and seal.

  2. Let it sit for 3 months before using.

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
Provide the crisp, pickled vegetable body of the dish.
Small onions
Add savory flavor and a firm bite that holds up after pickling.
Olive oil
Carries the spices and mustard and gives the pickles a rich, smooth coating.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that sharpens flavor and preserves the vegetables.
Coleman's mustard
Adds sharp pungency and helps bind the oil and vinegar together.

The step that matters

Drain the vegetables thoroughly. Salt draws water out of cucumbers and onions. Any moisture left behind dilutes the oil and vinegar mixture and can make the pickles watery and less stable in storage.

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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