Name: Cumberland Pudding
Ingredients: cucumbers (cut into 3-inch pieces); 1 egg yolk; remaining eggs (cut into dice); 1 pint hot white sauce; grated cheese; rice rolls (fried); coarse sea salt (to taste); water or stock (for simmering)

Why it works: Cucumber and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 734 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Cumberland Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the center of the cucumber pieces using a vegetable cutter or small knife.
Stand the cucumber pieces upright in a saucepan with a little hot stock or water.
Cover and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes until tender.
Rub the yolk of 1 egg through a wire sieve and set aside.
Add the diced remaining eggs to the hot white sauce and stir in the grated cheese.
Drain the cucumbers and place them on croutes.
Press the egg and cheese mixture lightly into the cucumbers, garnishing with the sieved yolk.
Arrange the rice rolls overlapping around the base and serve the remaining sauce in a sauceboat.

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 + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together734 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Cheese + ricetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together942 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + ricetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,396 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cucumber + cheesetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together411 recipes

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