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 ↓
Sweet Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine
Boil 1-2 gallons of water with 1-2 cups of coarse sea salt.
Pour the boiling water over the cucumbers and let them stand overnight.
The next morning, drain the cucumbers.
Spiced vinegar and sugaring
Boil 1-2 gallons of vinegar with 1-2 cups of mixed pickle spices, 2 tablespoons of dry mustard, and 4 tablespoons of sugar.
Pour the boiling mixture over the cucumbers.
For the next 12 days, add ½ cup of sugar daily without heating the liquid.
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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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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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,424 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
- Provide the crisp body that the brine and vinegar act upon.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and firms their texture for crunch.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the pickles and gives their sour flavour.
- Sugar
- Balances the sourness and sweetens the pickles, added in stages over twelve days.
- Dry mustard
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that complements the sweet and sour balance.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar without heating the liquid. Sugar added to the cold brine dissolves slowly and unevenly, so the sweetness builds gradually over the twelve days instead of soaking in at once. Heating it would change the pickles' texture and flavour, so the cook must follow the instruction exactly.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mustard, sugar):
- Horseradishfits better
- Radishfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, sugar. 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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