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Salad

Cucumber Baskets

A chilled cucumber basket filled with tomato and cucumber squares, dressed with vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Baskets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the baskets

  1. Cut a piece from both the stem and blossom end of each cucumber.

  2. Cut each cucumber in half crosswise and then cut two pieces from each section, leaving a basket shape with a handle.

  3. Remove the pulp in large pieces and cut it into squares to refill half of each basket.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the remaining half of each basket with pieces of tomatoes.

  2. Pour vinegar over the filled baskets and serve cold.

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.

  1. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Pepper + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the edible baskets that hold the filling.
Tomatoes
Supply juicy, fresh filling for the second half of each basket.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the cucumber and tomato flavors.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, cucumber):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, cucumber. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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