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 ↓
Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Brine the cucumbers
Wash cucumbers carefully and place them in jars.
Make a weak brine by dissolving a handful of coarse sea salt in 1½ gallons of water.
Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers and cover; repeat this for three mornings, skimming thoroughly each time.
Scald in vinegar
On the fourth day, heat vinegar in a porcelain kettle and add a piece of alum.
When the vinegar is scalding hot, add cucumbers until covered, skimming off as soon as they are scalded through.
Replace with more cucumbers, adding a small piece of alum each time.
After this process, discard the vinegar and replace it with good cider or white wine vinegar.
Spice and store
Add spices, mustard seed, and red peppers to the vinegar.
Sort the pickles and place them in stone or glass jars, then pour the hot spiced vinegar over them.
Seal the jars and store them for later use.
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.
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Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,281 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + walnuttop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together380 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 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 pickle itself, becoming crisp and firm as they are brined and scalded.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons the brine, helping to firm the flesh.
- Alum
- Hardens the cucumber tissue so the pickles stay firm during scalding.
- Mustard seed
- Adds pungent, aromatic flavor to the spiced vinegar.
The step that matters
Skimming off the cucumbers as soon as they are scalded through. Leaving cucumbers in hot vinegar too long overcooks them, turning them soft and mushy instead of firm. Pulling them out at the moment they are heated through keeps the texture crisp.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, mustard, pepper):
- Lentilsfits better
- Black-eyed peafits better
- Sesamefits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, mustard, pepper. 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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