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Oil Cucumbers

A pickled cucumber dish preserved in oil, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Oil Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Pare and slice cucumbers, not too thin.

  2. Layer cucumbers, thinly sliced onions, chopped red pepper, and salt in a jar.

  3. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.

  4. Let soak for 12 hours; if too salty, rinse with fresh water.

  5. Squeeze out excess water using a clean cloth.

Pickle and seal

  1. In a stone jar, combine cucumbers, onions, and red pepper.

  2. Pour in white wine vinegar and add celery and mustard seeds.

  3. Cover with 2 inches of salad oil.

  4. Seal the jar with a bladder and add more vinegar as needed.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, watery bulk that the salt and vinegar season and firm.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, concentrating flavour and firming their texture.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that seasons the vegetables and helps preserve them.
Salad oil
Forms a cover over the vegetables that limits contact with air.

The step that matters

Squeezing out excess water. Salt has drawn water from the cucumbers and onions; if they are not squeezed dry, the extra liquid dilutes the vinegar and can leave the pickle watery and less crisp.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, white wine, vinegar, celery, 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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