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 ↓
Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the brine
Wash cucumbers carefully and place them in jars.
Make a weak brine by dissolving a handful of coarse sea salt in 1 ½ gallons of water.
Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers and cover; repeat this for three mornings, skimming thoroughly each time.
Make the vinegar bath
On the fourth day, heat a porcelain kettle of vinegar with a piece of alum.
When the vinegar is scalding hot, add cucumbers until covered; do not boil, skim off as soon as scalded, and replace with more cucumbers, adding a small piece of alum each time.
Finish the pickles
After this process, discard the vinegar and replace it with good cider or white wine vinegar; add spices, mustard seed, and red peppers to taste.
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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,281 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + walnuttop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together380 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,991 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- The main vegetable that is softened and preserved by the brine and vinegar.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brining stage.
- Cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickles their sharp flavour.
- Alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm and crisp during the scalding process.
The step that matters
Scalding the cucumbers in vinegar. The vinegar must be kept scalding hot but never boiled. Boiling can soften the cucumbers and drive off acidity, so the skin and texture may suffer. Skimming as soon as it scalds keeps the bath clean.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cider, mustard, pepper):
- Chickpeafits better
- Beansfits better
- Black-eyed peafits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cider, mustard, pepper. 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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