Name: Raw Cucumbers
Ingredients: 2 cucumbers; ½ cup pounded ice; 2 tablespoons vinegar; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 2 tablespoons oil

Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Raw Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Peel the cucumbers and soak them in ice water for one hour.
Slice the cucumbers and mix them with pounded ice in a glass bowl.

Dress and serve

Add vinegar, salt, pepper, and oil to the mixture and stir well.

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 + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,991 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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: Provide the crisp, watery body that makes up most of the salad.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Oil: Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing a smoother mouthfeel.