Name: Stuffed Cucumbers
Ingredients: cucumbers; meat or fish stuffing; carrot; broth; spices; seasoning; tomato sauce or other sauce

Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Peel the cucumbers and cut a small piece from the top.
Use a small teaspoon to scoop out the middle of the cucumbers.
Fill the cucumbers with the meat or fish stuffing.
Stop the end with a piece of carrot cut like a stopper.
Cook the stuffed cucumbers in a stewpan with good broth, well spiced and seasoned.
Serve on tomato sauce or any other sauce you prefer.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,405 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,215 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + tomatotop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,438 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + carrottop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,905 recipes

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