Name: Sweet Pickles
Ingredients: Ripe cucumbers; Vinegar; Sugar; Spices (optional)

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 ↓

Sweet Pickles

Ingredients

Ripe cucumbers
Vinegar
Sugar
Spices (optional)

Directions

Wash and slice ripe cucumbers.
In a pot, combine vinegar and sugar to taste.
Add spices if desired and bring to a boil.
Pour the hot mixture over the cucumbers in a jar.
Seal the jar and let it cool before refrigerating.

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).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cucumber + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,112 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).