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 ↓
Plain Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Dissolve salt in water to create brine.
Submerge cucumbers in brine and weigh them down.
Leave cucumbers in brine for 2 days.
Heat and pack
Remove cucumbers and place them in a kettle with enough water and vinegar to cover.
Heat cucumbers slightly, then remove them.
Pack cucumbers into glass jars and fill with cold vinegar.
If vinegar is strong, dilute with a little water.
Add spices for flavor if desired.
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, watery base that the brine and vinegar flavor and preserve.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brine stage.
- Vinegar
- Adds sourness and acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its tang.
The step that matters
Leave cucumbers in brine for 2 days. Salt draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture. Leaving them too briefly can leave them soft or under-seasoned, while the timing sets the crispness and flavor before pickling.
“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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