Name: Cucumbers in Brine
Ingredients: Cucumbers; Coarse sea salt; Water; Boiling spiced vinegar; Horse-radish root

Why it works: Cucumber and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 212 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cucumbers in Brine

Ingredients

Directions

Leave at least one inch of stem on the cucumbers and wash them well in cold water.
Make a brine with enough salt in water to float an egg.
Submerge the cucumbers in the brine as you gather them daily.
Place a weight on the cucumbers to keep them under the brine.
When ready to use, remove the cucumbers and soak them for 2-3 days to remove excess salt.
Pour boiling spiced vinegar over the cucumbers.
Add a few pieces of horse-radish root to make them crisp.

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 + radishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together212 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together529 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Vinegar + radishtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together508 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cucumber + horsetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together79 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).