Name: Cucumber Pickles
Ingredients: Cucumbers; Coarse sea salt; Vinegar; Red pepper; Cloves

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Pour boiling water over cucumbers and drain well.
Pack cucumbers in coarse sea salt.
When ready to pickle, place desired cucumbers in a jar and cover with boiling water.
Once cool, drain and pour over another kettle of boiling water.
Repeat with one more kettle of boiling water.
Heat vinegar to a scalding point and flavor with red pepper and cloves.
Pour the flavored vinegar 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.

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.

Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Cucumber + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,319 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,991 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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