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Cucumber Pickles

A simple cucumber pickle made with salt, mustard seed, and vinegar, stored 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

  1. Wash and wipe the cucumbers, then trim the ends without peeling them.

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

Pickle

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of whole white mustard seed to each jar.

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

  3. Seal the jars tightly and store them in a cool, dry place.

  4. 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
Form the main body of the pickles, staying crisp when sliced thinly and packed.
Vinegar
Acidifies the brine, preserving the cucumbers and giving them their sharp, tangy flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons the pickles as they cure.
Whole white mustard seed
Adds a mild, pungent aroma and flavour that infuses into the pickles over time.

The step that matters

Seal the jars tightly and leave them unopened. A tight seal keeps air and contaminants out while the vinegar and salt work over time. Opening early disrupts the brine and the flavour has not yet developed.

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.

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