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Cucumber Catsup

A pickled cucumber relish made with vinegar, salt, pepper, and mustard seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the cucumbers and remove the white pith from three sides.

  2. Slice the cucumbers into ½ inch thick pieces.

Salt and drain

  1. Layer the cucumber slices in a bowl, sprinkling salt between each layer.

  2. The next morning, press the liquid from the cucumbers.

Pickle

  1. Transfer the cucumbers to small jars and fill with strong vinegar, seasoned with black pepper and mustard seed.

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

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  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
Make up the bulk of the ketchup and give it its fresh, crisp body.
Salt
Draws water out of the cucumber slices, concentrating the flavor and softening the texture.
Strong vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the ketchup its sharp tang.
Onion
Adds savory, aromatic depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Press the liquid from the cucumbers. Salting draws out a large amount of water. If the liquid is not pressed out well, the ketchup stays thin and dilutes the vinegar, weakening both texture and keeping quality.

Swap the onion

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

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

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