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Cucumber Catsup

A cucumber-based condiment with onions, horseradish, cayenne, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 640 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the cucumbers and remove the seeds.

  2. Grate the cucumbers finely.

  3. Chop the onions.

Combine and seal

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated cucumbers, chopped onions, horseradish, cayenne pepper, sugar, salt, and black pepper.

  2. Cover the mixture with cold vinegar and seal it in a jar.

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 + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Horseradish + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the bulk and fresh, watery body of the catsup.
Onions
Add sharp aromatic flavor that deepens as the mixture sits.
Horseradish
Adds pungent heat that mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid and supplies the tangy acidity.

The step that matters

Covering the mixture with cold vinegar and sealing the jar. The vinegar's acidity is what keeps the catsup from spoiling, so it must fully cover the grated vegetables. Any exposed pieces can spoil, and a loose seal lets air in and spoilage start.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, horseradish, pepper, 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.

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