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Cucumber Canape

A chilled cucumber canapé topped with French dressing, chutney syrup, and olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Canape

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cucumbers thinly and marinate them for 20 minutes in French dressing mixed with onion juice.

  2. Drain the cucumbers and add the chutney syrup.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on slices of toast and garnish with rings of olives.

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.

  1. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + syruptop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Syrup + olivetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, fresh bulk of the topping.
French dressing
Marinates the cucumbers, adding acidity and seasoning.
Onion
Adds sharp, aromatic flavor through its juice.
Chutney syrup
Adds sweetness and tang to the cucumber mixture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, syrup, olive):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, syrup, olive. 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.

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