Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Pare the cucumbers.
Cut them in half and scoop out the seeds.
Slice them into ½-inch thick pieces, making sure the pieces are all equal in size.
Salt and drain
Place the cucumbers in an earthen bowl and sprinkle with salt.
Let them stand for 10 hours, turning them occasionally.
Drain the water.
Pack and store
Pack the cucumbers into jars with peppercorns and bay leaves.
Cover the cucumbers with vinegar.
Cork the jars tightly and store in a cool place.
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.
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Provide the crisp main body of the pickle, which the salt and vinegar act upon.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers, firming their texture and preparing them to take up vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
- Peppercorns
- Add aromatic, spicy flavour that infuses into the cucumbers while they sit in the vinegar.
- Bay leaves
- Add a subtle aromatic, herbal flavour to the packed jars.
The step that matters
Salting and draining the cucumbers. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers by osmosis. Draining that water and packing them tightly keeps the pickle firm and crisp rather than soft and watery once the vinegar is added.
“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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