Name: Forced Cucumbers
Ingredients: fresh cucumbers (medium size); forcemeat; vinegar; coarse sea salt; veal stock; strong cullis

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 ↓

Forced Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Pare the cucumbers and cut them in half.
Remove the seeds with a knife.
Fill the cavity with forcemeat and bind the halves together with strong thread.
Place them in a stewpan with vinegar, coarse sea salt, and veal stock.
Simmer over low heat until three-quarters cooked and reduce the liquid.
Add strong cullis to the cucumbers and stew gently until fully cooked.

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).
Cucumber + vealtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together439 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Vinegar + vealtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together948 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).