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Salad

Cucumber and Radish Salad

A salad of thinly sliced cucumber and radishes layered on lettuce leaves and dressed with French dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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

Directions

  1. Slice cucumber and radishes very thin.

  2. Layer the slices on lettuce leaves.

  3. 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.

  1. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. 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
Provides crisp, cool, watery texture as the salad's main body.
Radishes
Add a sharp, peppery bite and crunch that contrasts with the cucumber.
Lettuce leaves
Give a crisp, leafy base that holds the slices and adds freshness.
French dressing
Adds acidity, sweetness and moisture that seasons the vegetables.

The step that matters

Slice cucumber and radishes very thin. Thin slices let the vegetables soften slightly in the dressing and eat more tender. Thick pieces stay hard and watery, and the dressing cannot coat them evenly.

Swap the radish

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

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Radishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, lettuce. 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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