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Cucumber Relish

A sweet and spicy cucumber relish made with cucumbers, onions, pepper, celery seed, mustard seed, sugar, vinegar, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Cucumber Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the cucumbers and slice or cut them into large diced pieces.

  2. Peel and chop the onions into small pieces.

  3. Chop the red sweet pepper finely.

Cook and store

  1. Place all ingredients in a large pot and boil for 20 minutes.

  2. Seal the mixture in airtight containers and store for winter.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cucumber + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Make up most of the relish and provide its main texture and body.
White onions
Add savoury depth and a sharp aroma that mellows during boiling.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Supplies acidity for a sharp tang and helps preserve the relish.
Turmeric
Gives the relish its yellow colour and a mild, earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling for 20 minutes. Boiling all ingredients together for the full time cooks the vegetables until tender while the vinegar and sugar thicken and blend the flavours. Boiling too long can turn the cucumbers soft and mushy, while too short a boil leaves the onions raw-tasting and the mixture less stable for storage.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, sugar, celery, pepper, mustard, vinegar, turmeric. 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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