Name: Cucumbee Salad Dressing
Ingredients: 2 large cucumbers; 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh red peppers; 1 slight grating of onion or 1 clove garlic; 2 tablespoons fresh cream; ½ pint mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Cucumber and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumbee Salad Dressing

Ingredients

2 large cucumbers
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh red peppers
1 slight grating of onion or 1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons fresh cream
½ pint mayonnaise dressing

Directions

Prepare the cucumber

Remove seeds from the cucumbers, then grate and drain them.

Make the dressing

Add the chopped red peppers and either the grated onion or rub the dish with garlic.
Mix in the fresh cream and then add the mayonnaise dressing.

Serve

Serve with fish, especially sole, similar to Sauce a la Tartar.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,991 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,827 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers: Provide the main body and fresh crunch of the salad once grated and drained.
Fresh cream: Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the dressing.
Mayonnaise dressing: Supplies the creamy base and fat that binds the dressing together.