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Uncooked Pickles

A pickled cucumber recipe that uses no cooking, with onions, pepper, salt, alum, olive oil, and sharp vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Uncooked Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickles

  1. Slice the pickles into ¼ inch thick slices.

  2. Pack the slices in quart jars with sliced onions and a hot red pepper.

  3. Add salt.

  4. Fill the jars with water.

  5. Add powdered alum.

  6. Let stand overnight.

  7. Drain the water.

  8. Rinse the pickles.

Pack and seal

  1. Fill the jars with pickles.

  2. Add olive oil.

  3. Fill the jars with sharp vinegar.

  4. Seal the 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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Pickles
Form the main body of the jar and supply the crisp, sour base flavor.
Powdered alum
Helps the pickle slices stay firm and crisp during soaking.
Sharp vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the pickles and gives them their tang.
Olive oil
Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel to the packed jars.

The step that matters

Add powdered alum. Alum is a firming agent that hardens pectin in the pickle tissue, so it helps slices stay crisp. Measure it carefully, since too much can leave a harsh or bitter taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, 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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