Name: Cucumber Catsup
Ingredients: full-grown cucumbers; coarse sea salt; celery seed; vinegar

Why it works: Cucumber and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,745 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

full-grown cucumbers
coarse sea salt
celery seed
vinegar

Directions

Boil and grate the cucumbers.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.
Pour out all the water.
Season with celery seed.
Add vinegar until the mixture is about the same consistency as the grated cucumbers.
Bottle for use.

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 + celerytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,745 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,627 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).