Name: Cucumber Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cucumber (about 1 inch in diameter); 1 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons malt vinegar; 1 quart water

Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

1 cucumber (about 1 inch in diameter)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons malt vinegar
1 quart water

Directions

Peel the cucumber very thinly.
Cut the cucumber in half, then each half into quarters.
Remove the seeds from the center and cut each quarter into 1-inch lengths.
Round off the sharp edges of each piece with a small knife.
Place the cucumber pieces in a quart pan with 1 quart of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of malt vinegar.

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.

Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Malt + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together365 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cucumber + malttop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together24 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).