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Salad

Cucumber Salad

A salad of cucumber, tomatoes, celery, onion, dressed with a butter, sugar, mustard, cream, and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel the cucumber, cut it in half, and scoop out the seeds to create a boat shape.

  2. Soak the cucumber halves in ice water until needed.

  3. Chop the tomatoes, celery, cucumber, and onion into small pieces.

  4. Season the chopped vegetables with salt and pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, cream together the sugar, dry mustard, and coarse sea salt with the butter.

  2. Add the egg yolk and beat until smooth.

  3. Stir in the sweet or sour cream and vinegar, mixing in the order given.

  4. Cook the dressing until smooth, then combine with the seasoned vegetables.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the dressing and gives it a smooth, rich body.
Sweet or sour cream
Adds fat and creaminess, giving the dressing its body and mild tang.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and sharpness of the mustard.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing base.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until smooth. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if heated too quickly or too hot. Cooking gently and stirring keeps the dressing smooth and thick, so it combines evenly with the vegetables.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, celery, pepper, sugar, mustard, butter):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, celery, pepper, sugar, mustard, butter. 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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