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Salad

German Cucumber Salad

A salad of peeled cucumber and Spanish onion, seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, chili vinegar, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,649 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

German Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the peeled cucumber coarsely.

  2. Chop the onion finely.

  3. Season the cucumber and onion with salt and white pepper.

  4. Mix the cucumber and onion in a dish.

  5. Cover the dish with another dish and let stand for 20 minutes.

  6. Drain the mixture.

Dress and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a salad bowl.

  2. Garnish with onion rings and chopped parsley.

  3. Dress with olive oil, vinegar, and a few drops of chili vinegar.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Cucumber + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  5. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumber
Provides the main crisp, watery body of the salad.
Onion
Adds sharp pungency that mellows during the resting period.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the salad and balances the oil.
Olive oil
Adds fat and smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.

The step that matters

Drain the mixture. Salt draws water out of cucumber and onion during the 20-minute rest. Draining removes this liquid so the salad stays crisp and the dressing does not become watery.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, olive, vinegar, parsley. 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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