Why it works: Mustard and celery 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 Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and slice the cucumbers thickly and the onions thinly.
Layer the cucumbers and onions alternately in a crock.
Brine and pickle
Prepare a brine with ½ pint coarse sea salt and enough water to cover the vegetables.
Let the mixture stand overnight.
Drain the brine, then add olive oil, vinegar, and mustard seeds.
Seal the crock tightly.
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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Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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; salting draws out water so they stay crisp.
- Sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the vegetables and firms their texture during the brine.
- Olive oil
- Adds richness and fat that carries the flavour of the seeds and vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity and a sharp tang that balances the oil and salt.
- Mustard seed
- Adds a pungent, sharp flavour that gives the pickle its character.
The step that matters
Drain the brine, then add olive oil, vinegar, and mustard seeds.. The vegetables should be drained well before the oil and vinegar go in, so leftover salt water does not dilute the dressing or make the pickle overly salty.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, olive, mustard, celery, vinegar):
- Lettucefits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Broccolifits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, olive, mustard, celery, 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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