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Cucumber Catsup

A pickled relish of cucumbers, peppers, onions, celery seed, mustard seed, and cider 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 ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove seeds from cucumbers and peppers, then dice them all into small pieces.

  2. Add a handful of coarse sea salt and place the mixture in a cheesecloth bag to drain for 12 hours.

  3. Once drained, add ½ pint each of celery and mustard seed.

Pack and mature

  1. Pack the mixture into stone jars and cover with good cider vinegar, mixing it well through the mass.

  2. Cover tightly and set aside for 6 weeks to mature.

Serve

  1. Serve on cold meats or enjoy as a pickle.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the bulk and crisp texture of the catsup.
Green peppers
Add body and a fresh, grassy flavour to the mixture.
White onions
Contribute sharpness and savoury depth as they mellow during maturing.
Cider vinegar
Acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the catsup its tang.

The step that matters

Draining with salt. Salt draws water out of the diced vegetables through osmosis. Draining for the full time removes excess liquid, so the catsup stays thick and firm rather than watery once packed in vinegar.

Swap the onion

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

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

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