Why it works: Cucumber and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Salt Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and wipe the cucumbers.
Layer the cucumbers in a jar or wooden pail, sprinkling coarse sea salt over each layer.
Add dill, whole peppers, grape leaves, and a few bay leaves if available.
Cover with water up to the brim.
Place a piece of bread in the jar to help sour the pickles.
Cover with a plate and weigh it down with a clean, heavy stone to keep the cucumbers submerged in brine.
Set the jar in a warm place, like the back of the kitchen stove, for the first three days.
The pickles will be ready to use in a week.
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.
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Cucumber + dilltop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together530 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Dill + peppertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + grapetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,909 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,991 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cucumber + grapetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together380 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the grape
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, dill, pepper, bread):
- Lemonfits better
- Limefits better
- Avocadofits better
- Grapethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, dill, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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