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Cucumber Vinegar

A fermented cucumber vinegar made by steeping cucumbers, onions, shallots, salt, pepper, and cayenne in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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. Pare and slice the cucumbers.

  2. Place them in a stone jar or wide-mouthed bottle with the vinegar.

  3. Slice the onions and shallots, and add them along with the salt, pepper, and cayenne to the cucumbers.

  4. Let the mixture stand for 4 to 5 days.

Strain and store

  1. Boil the mixture, then let it cool.

  2. Strain the liquid through a piece of muslin.

  3. Store the vinegar in small, well-sealed bottles.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Onion + peppertop 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 flavour and aroma that infuse into the vinegar during standing.
Vinegar
Acts as the base liquid that extracts flavour from the vegetables and preserves the mixture.
Onions
Add savoury sharpness and aroma as they steep in the vinegar.
Shallots
Contribute a mild, sweet onion aroma to the infused vinegar.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for 4 to 5 days. Flavour moves from the cucumbers, onions and shallots into the vinegar slowly, so the full standing time is needed for a well-developed taste. Keeping the vessel covered and sealed while it stands also limits contamination from the air.

Swap the onion

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

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

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