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Oil Cucumber Pickle

A pickle of cucumbers preserved in oil, celery seed, mustard seeds, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Oil Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cucumbers using a potato slicer.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and let stand overnight.

Pickle

  1. In the morning, mix together olive oil, celery seed, black mustard seed, and white mustard seed.

  2. Pour the mixture over the cucumbers and add vinegar to cover.

  3. Pack the cucumbers in 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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the pickle and carry its crisp texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumber slices, firming them and seasoning the pickle.
Olive oil
Coats the slices and carries the flavour of the seeds through the pickle.
Mustard seed
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as the pickle stands.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the pickle and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Sprinkle with salt and let stand overnight. Salt draws water out of the cucumber slices through osmosis. Too little time or salt leaves them soft and watery, so they will not stay crisp in the finished pickle.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, olive, 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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