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Cucumber Pickle

A preserved cucumber in a sweet and salty vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash cucumbers and place them in a jar.

  2. In a bowl, mix brown sugar, coarse sea salt, and dry mustard.

  3. Add vinegar to the dry mixture and stir well.

Pickle

  1. Pour the mixture over the cucumbers, ensuring they are fully covered.

  2. Cover the jar with a plate and let it sit for ten 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 + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 vegetable base that absorbs the brine flavour over time.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and mellow depth that balances the sharp vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws flavour into the cucumbers and helps preserve the pickle.
Dry mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that mellows during the long rest.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the cucumbers and gives the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Fully submerge the cucumbers. Cucumbers exposed above the liquid can spoil or mould, since air and low acidity allow microbes to grow. Keeping every piece covered by the vinegar brine protects the pickle during the ten-day rest.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, mustard, 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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