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Cucumber Pickles

A brine-based pickle made with cucumbers, mustard, onions, sugar, pickling spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Select 1 gallon of medium-sized cucumbers that have been in brine for a few weeks.

  2. Soak cucumbers in fresh water for 3 days, changing the water daily.

Pack and pickle

  1. Pack cucumbers in a stone jar.

  2. Add ground mustard, sliced onions, sugar, and pickling spices (boiled in vinegar and cooled).

  3. Fill the jar with cold vinegar.

  4. Let sit for 3 to 4 days before using.

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. Mustard + oniontop 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
Form the pickle itself, and their texture softens and firms as they cure in brine and vinegar.
Ground mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the vinegar and sugar.
Onions
Contribute savory sweetness and aroma that carry into the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar, softening the sour edge.
Vinegar
Acidifies the jar, preserving the cucumbers and giving the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Soaking the cucumbers in fresh water. Brined cucumbers are very salty, and soaking them in fresh water for three days, changing the water daily, draws out salt so the pickles do not taste harsh. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the finished pickles over-salted.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, mustard, sugar, 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.

More cucumber pickles recipes

Sweet 23Green 9Spiced 9Small 7Sliced 6Sour 5 See all 334 →

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