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Salad

Cucumber Catsup

A pickled cucumber condiment flavored with onions, salt, vinegar, mustard, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a colander, combine grated cucumbers, chopped onions, and salt.

  2. Let the mixture drain overnight.

Make the ketchup

  1. After draining, cover the mixture with vinegar.

  2. Add white mustard and white pepper to taste.

  3. Seal in a jar and store cold for use with meats and sandwiches.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Make up the bulk of the ketchup and give it its fresh, watery body.
Onions
Add sharp, savory flavor that balances the cucumber.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and onions during draining, concentrating the flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the mixture in the jar.
White mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavor that gives the ketchup its bite.

The step that matters

Draining overnight. Salt draws water out of the grated cucumber and onion. If the mixture is not drained well, excess liquid dilutes the vinegar and flavor and makes the ketchup watery.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, vinegar, mustard. 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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