Why it works: Cucumber and syrup work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 90 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Cucumber, Watermelon and Canteloupe
Ingredients
Directions
Pare the cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupes.
Remove the soft part from inside each fruit.
Cut the fruits into pieces for serving.
Cook the pieces in boiling water for ten minutes.
Drain the fruits and then cook them in hot syrup until clear and tender.
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.
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Cucumber + syruptop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together90 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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