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Cucumber Catsup

A pickled cucumber and onion relish seasoned with salt, mustard seed, pepper, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the cucumbers and onions.

  2. Grate the cucumbers and chop the onions as finely as possible.

  3. Sprinkle the grated cucumbers and chopped onions with ¾ pint of coarse sea salt.

  4. Place the mixture in a sieve and let it stand for 12 hours.

Season and pack

  1. Add 1 cup of mustard seed and ½ cup of black pepper to the mixture. Mix well and transfer to a stone jar.

  2. Cover with strong vinegar and seal tightly for 3 days.

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

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Make up the bulk of the relish, providing its crisp, watery texture once salted and drained.
White onions
Add sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during the salting and pickling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cucumbers and onions, firming them and concentrating flavour.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, slightly bitter flavour and a bit of crunch to the relish.
Strong vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the relish its tang.

The step that matters

Sieving the salted mixture for 12 hours. Salt draws out water from the cucumbers and onions. If they are not allowed to drain fully, excess moisture dilutes the vinegar and the relish can turn watery and spoil rather than keep firm.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, mustard, pepper, 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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