Name: Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients: Cucumbers; Coarse sea salt; Vinegar; Mustard seeds; Whole black peppers; Cloves; Sugar; Small red peppers

Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Peel and slice the cucumbers. Layer them in a stone jar, sprinkling coarse sea salt on each layer. Let sit overnight.
The next morning, squeeze the cucumbers thoroughly and place them on a platter.
Boil enough vinegar to cover the cucumbers with mustard seeds, whole black peppers, and cloves.
Once the vinegar boils, add the cucumbers and let them bubble up once, then remove immediately.
Add a small quantity of sugar, place the cucumbers in jars, and add one small red pepper to each jar. Seal while hot.

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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,281 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,829 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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

Swap the clove

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

Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Capersfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, mustard, pepper, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.