Cucumber Salad

A plain macerated cucumber salad of the sort that appeared on midwestern tables all summer. Two details need attention: what "sweet-oil" means, and how much pepper a teaspoon really is.

• Sweet-oilNineteenth-century American recipes use "sweet oil" for olive oil — sweet in the sense of fresh rather than rancid, as opposed to the lamp and fish oils kept in the same house. Any mild olive oil works; much of the olive oil sold then was milder than the peppery green oils common now.
• Ham gravyThe alternative is the warm rendered fat and pan juices left after frying ham, a standard fat in households that cured their own pork. It sets firm as it cools, so the dressing wants to be made and dressed while the fat is still liquid, or the salad turns waxy in the refrigerator.
• The salting stepHalf an hour under salt draws out enough water that the vinegar dressing stays sharp instead of turning into cucumber juice. Drain well and, if the cucumbers taste aggressively salty, give them a quick rinse and pat dry; the original does not say how much salt to use.
• QuantitiesTwo tablespoons of oil and two of vinegar dress about two medium cucumbers. Nothing in the original fixes the number of cucumbers, so scale the dressing by eye; the vegetables should be glossed, not swimming.
• A teaspoon of pepperThat is a great deal by current taste. Start with a quarter teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper and add from there.
• VinegarCider vinegar was the common household vinegar in this period, often homemade and of unpredictable strength. Standard 5 percent cider vinegar is the closest match; white wine vinegar also works, distilled white will be harsh.
• CucumbersThe recipe peels its cucumbers, as period recipes routinely did. A modern English or Persian cucumber needs no peeling and no seeding.
• Yield and servingTwo cucumbers dressed this way serve four as a side. Best eaten within an hour or two of dressing — after that the slices slump and the vinegar goes watery.