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Grated Cucumber Pickle

A pickled cucumber made by grating cucumbers, seasoning with salt, pepper, and vinegar, then storing in jars.

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 ↓

Grated Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumber

  1. Peel the cucumbers and grate them on a coarse grater.

  2. If using fresh cucumbers, squeeze out nearly all the juice.

  3. Season the grated cucumber pulp with salt and pepper.

Pack and rest

  1. Pack the mixture into glass jars.

  2. Pour strong cold vinegar into the jars, filling them completely.

  3. Seal the jars air-tight and let them sit for about a week before using.

  4. For variation, add one-fourth the amount of grated green peppers or grated white onions to the cucumber.

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. Pepper + oniontop 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. Vinegar + oniontop 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
Provide the main bulk and crisp texture of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the grated cucumber and seasons the pulp.
Strong cold vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it a sharp flavour.

The step that matters

Squeeze out the juice from fresh cucumbers. Excess water dilutes the vinegar and makes the pickle soggy and less tangy. Removing as much juice as possible helps the pickle keep its texture and flavour during the week of resting.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. 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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