Name: Cucumber Relish for Fish of Meats
Ingredients: 1 large cucumber, grated and seeded; 1 onion, grated; 1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon white pepper; juice of 2 lemons; 1 tablespoon olive oil; ½ cup strong hot vinegar; 1 teaspoon sugar

Why it works: Cucumber and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Cucumber Relish for Fish of Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Grate the cucumber and onion.
In a bowl, combine the grated cucumber, onion, Tabasco sauce, salt, white pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, and sugar. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Serve

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.

Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumber: Provides the bulk and fresh, crisp moisture of the relish.
Onion: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that mellows as the relish sits.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Vinegar: Adds sharp acidity and tang that brightens the mix.
Sugar: Adds a little sweetness to balance the acid and heat.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, sauce, lemon, olive, vinegar, sugar):

Garlicfits better
Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, sauce, lemon, olive, vinegar, sugar. 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.