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Cucumber Vinegar

A vinegar infused with cucumbers, shallots, garlic, white pepper, and salt, left to steep for 11‑12 days.

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

Prepare

  1. Wipe the cucumbers and slice them into a wide-mouthed bottle without peeling.

  2. Add shallots if desired.

Infuse

  1. Pour enough vinegar over the cucumbers to cover them.

  2. Add garlic, white pepper, and salt.

  3. Let the mixture infuse for 11-12 days.

Bottle

  1. Strain the vinegar into small bottles and cork tightly.

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 + shallottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together264 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cucumber + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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
Provide the flavour and aroma that the vinegar takes on during infusion.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid that extracts flavour from the cucumbers and preserves the mixture.
Garlic
Adds a pungent aroma that infuses into the vinegar.
White pepper
Adds mild heat and aroma to the infused vinegar.

The step that matters

Pour enough vinegar to cover the cucumbers. Any cucumber left above the liquid can be exposed to air and may spoil or mould. Keeping every piece submerged lets the vinegar protect the mixture while the flavour develops.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, clove, garlic, white pepper, vinegar):

  1. Radishfits about as well
  2. Horseradishfits about as well
  3. Shallotthe original
  4. Broccolifits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, clove, garlic, white 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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