Name: Stuffed Cucumbers
Ingredients: 2 large cucumbers; ½ lb veal; 1½ oz flour; 1 oz butter; ½ cup stock; 2 eggs; Salt and pepper to taste; 2 oz ham or tongue; Fried croutons

Why it works: Cucumber and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,991 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare quenelle meat according to the method for chaudfroid quenelles.
Chop the ham and add it to the mixture.
Peel the cucumbers and cut them into 2-inch pieces.
Remove the seeds using a cutter and poach the cucumber pieces in salted water until tender.
Remove the cucumbers and fill them with the quenelle mixture.
Poach the filled cucumbers again for about 10 minutes until the quenelle meat is cooked.
Avoid overcooking the cucumbers during the first poaching.
Serve the stuffed cucumbers on rounds of bread cut with a fluted cutter, topped with a small round slice of ham.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,991 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, butter, egg, pepper, ham):

Shallotfits better
Asparagusfits better
Leekfits better
Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, butter, egg, pepper, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.