Name: Pickles
Ingredients: Small cucumbers or gherkins; Coarse sea salt; Vinegar; Spices (such as mustard seeds, dill, or peppercorns)

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 ↓

Pickles

Ingredients

Small cucumbers or gherkins
Coarse sea salt
Vinegar
Spices (such as mustard seeds, dill, or peppercorns)

Directions

Wash the cucumbers or gherkins thoroughly.
Pack them tightly in a clean jar.
In a saucepan, combine vinegar, water, and coarse sea salt; bring to a boil.
Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, ensuring they are fully submerged.
Seal the jar and let it cool before refrigerating.
Allow the pickles to sit for at least a week before consuming.

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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,281 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).