Name: Stuffed Cucumbers
Ingredients: 3 cucumbers; ½ cup bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons chopped ham; 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped; 1 tablespoon onion, chopped; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 cup water

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut each cucumber in half and scrape out the seeds.
In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, chopped ham, parsley, onion, salt, and pepper.
Fill the cucumber halves with the mixture and tie them together.

Bake and serve

Place the stuffed cucumbers in a baking pan and add the water.
Cover with another pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
Serve with drawn butter or pour the sauce over the cucumbers.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cucumber + parsleytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,564 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 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

Cucumbers: Form the edible shell that holds the stuffing and softens as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds its shape in the cucumber halves.
Ham: Adds savory, salty flavor to the stuffing.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, ham, parsley, onion, pepper):

Carrotfits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, ham, parsley, onion, pepper. 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.