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 Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Soak cucumbers in cold water.
Peel the cucumbers and cut off the stem end.
Place cucumbers in a pan of cold water until ready to serve.
Slice cucumbers thinly.
Serve with a separate plate of sliced small white onions.
Dress cucumbers with vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste.
If using oil, mix it with the cucumbers before adding vinegar.
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 + olivetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,050 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,297 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, vinegar, olive):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Lettucefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, pepper, vinegar, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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