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To Pickle Cucumbers

This recipe preserves cucumbers by layering with onion, salt, cayenne, vinegar, and oil, then fermenting for two weeks.

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

To Pickle Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Remove the green rind from the cucumbers and slice them thickly.

  2. Layer the slices in a deep dish, sprinkling chopped onion and salt between each layer.

  3. Let the cucumbers stand for six hours.

  4. Drain the liquid using a colander.

Pack and pickle

  1. Place the cucumbers in a pot, adding a little cayenne pepper between layers.

  2. Cover the cucumbers with strong cold vinegar.

  3. Once the pot is full, pour sweet oil on top and seal it tightly.

  4. After two weeks, pour off the first vinegar and replace it with fresh vinegar.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

  4. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Their firm flesh makes up the crisp body of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumber slices, firming them and concentrating flavor.
Strong cold vinegar
Acid that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy taste.
Chopped onion
Adds sharp aroma and savory flavor that soaks into the layered cucumbers.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that spreads through the layers as the pickle stands.
Sweet oil
Forms a layer on top that helps seal the pot and limit contact with air.

The step that matters

Draining after the six-hour rest. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers, and the liquid must be fully drained before packing. Leftover liquid dilutes the vinegar and can leave the pickle soft and watery.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, 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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