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Olive Oil Pickles

Pickled cucumbers preserved in olive oil with mustard seeds, salt, and vinegar.

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 ↓

Olive Oil Pickles

2 quart jars

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and slice the cucumbers without peeling them.

Mix and stand

  1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together cold.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 2 hours or more, stirring occasionally.

  3. This quantity will fill 2 quart jars.

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. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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 pickles and supply the crisp, watery texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cucumbers, firming their texture and seasoning them.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that gives the pickles their tang and helps preserve them.
Olive oil
Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel, and carries the mustard flavours through the pickles.
Brown mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that deepens as the seeds soak.
White mustard seed
Contributes milder mustard flavour and a gentle bite to the pickles.

The step that matters

Standing time with occasional stirring. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers over time. Stirring during the standing period spreads the salt and liquid evenly, so every slice seasons and firms at the same rate.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Lettucefits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Radishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, olive, 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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