Why it works: Cucumber and leek share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Cucumber and Leek Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the cucumber cubes and thinly sliced leeks in a bowl.
Mix well using equal parts of each ingredient.
Serve with French dressing.
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.
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Cucumber + leektop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together32 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumber
- Adds moisture and a crisp, cool texture to the salad.
- Leeks
- Add a mild onion-like aroma and a slight crunch.
- French dressing
- Adds acidity and fat that coat and season the vegetables.
“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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