Name: Pickle Sauce
Ingredients: ½ cup drawn butter sauce; 2 tablespoons chopped cucumber or mixed pickles

Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pickle Sauce

Ingredients

½ cup drawn butter sauce
2 tablespoons chopped cucumber or mixed pickles

Directions

Prepare ½ cup of drawn butter sauce.
When ready to serve, stir in 2 tablespoons of chopped cucumber or mixed pickles.

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.

Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + cucumbertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,174 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + cucumbertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,185 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Drawn butter sauce: Forms the rich, smooth base that carries the sauce.
Cucumber or mixed pickles: Adds acidity and a sharp, tangy bite that cuts through the butter.