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Oil Cucumber Pickle

A cucumber pickle preserved in olive oil with celery and mustard seeds, salted and vinegar-covered.

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 the cucumbers

  1. Slice the cucumbers with a potato peeler.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and let stand overnight.

Make and pack the pickle

  1. In the morning, mix 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 bulk of the pickle and provide its crisp, fresh texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers, firming them and seasoning the slices.
Olive oil
Coats the slices and carries the mustard and celery seed flavours through the pickle.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp tang.
Black mustard seed
Contributes a pungent, sharp flavour that deepens as the pickle stands.

The step that matters

Sprinkle with salt and let stand overnight. Salt draws moisture out of the cucumbers by osmosis. Enough salt and time firm the slices and make them less watery, so the pickle stays crisp rather than soggy.

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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