Name: Cucumber Vinegar
Ingredients: 10 large cucumbers (or 12 smaller ones); 1 quart vinegar; 2 onions; 2 shallots; 1 tablespoon salt; 2 tablespoons pepper; ¼ teaspoon cayenne

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

Peel and slice the cucumbers.
Place them in a stone jar or wide-mouthed bottle with the vinegar.
Slice the onions and shallots, then add them along with the salt, pepper, and cayenne to the cucumbers.

Steep and finish

Let the mixture stand for 4 to 5 days.
Boil everything together, then let it cool.
Strain the liquid through a piece of muslin and store it 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.

Cucumber + shallottop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together264 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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 main vegetable flavour and body of the vinegar infusion.
Vinegar: Acts as the base liquid that extracts flavour from the vegetables and onions and preserves them.
Onions: Add savoury depth and pungency that mellows during standing and boiling.
Shallots: Contribute a milder, sweeter allium flavour to the infusion.
Salt: Seasons the mixture and draws some moisture out of the vegetables.

Swap the onion

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

Mustardfits better
Chivefits better
Radishfits better
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.