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Cucumber Pickles

A simple cucumber pickle made with salt, mustard seed, and vinegar, stored in jars for at least two weeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Wash and wipe the cucumbers.

  2. Remove the ends but do not peel them.

  3. Slice the cucumbers thinly and pack them into pint jars.

Pickle and store

  1. When jars are full, add salt and mustard seed.

  2. Pour enough vinegar over the cucumbers to cover them.

  3. Seal the jars tightly.

  4. Store in a cool, dry place.

  5. Do not open for at least two weeks.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. 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

Small cucumbers
Provide the crisp, watery base that the brine flavours and preserves.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cucumbers and seasons the pickles.
Whole white mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent aroma and flavour to the pickles.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives them their tang.

The step that matters

Sealing and waiting before opening. Vinegar acidity preserves the cucumbers only when the jars are sealed tightly, keeping air and spoilage microbes out. Opening early interrupts the flavour from developing as the vinegar and spices slowly penetrate the slices.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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