Name: Cucumber and Radish Salad
Ingredients: 1 cucumber, thinly sliced; 1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced; Lettuce leaves; French dressing

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber and Radish Salad

Ingredients

1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced
Lettuce leaves
French dressing

Directions

Prepare

Slice the cucumber and radishes very thin.

Assemble and serve

Layer the cucumber and radish slices on lettuce leaves.
Drizzle with French dressing before serving.

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 + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together212 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Radish + lettucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together58 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 crisp texture and cool, moist bulk to the salad.
Radishes: Add crunch and a sharp, peppery bite that contrasts the cucumber.
French dressing: Adds moisture and tangy acidity that seasons the vegetables.