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Salad

Dressed Cucumbers

A salad of sliced cucumbers dressed with olive oil, chili vinegar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Dressed Cucumbers

Why it works: Cucumber and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Dressed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut cucumbers into lengths of about 1 inch and remove the rind.

  2. Pare cucumbers into thin ribbons until you reach the watery part, then discard the watery part.

  3. Sprinkle the ribbons with cayenne and fine salt, and let them drain for a little while.

  4. Arrange the drained ribbons in a clean dish.

Dress and serve

  1. Sauce the cucumbers with olive oil mixed with chili vinegar or equal parts chili and common vinegar.

  2. If desired, add a teaspoon of vinegar from pickled shallots for extra flavor.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, watery base that the dressing coats.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness that carries the flavor of the dressing.
Fine salt
Draws out moisture from the ribbons so they drain and season evenly.
Chili vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that brightens the cucumbers.

The step that matters

Drain the ribbons after salting. Salt draws water out of the cucumber. Letting the ribbons drain removes that liquid so the dressing clings and the dish does not turn soggy or diluted.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, vinegar. 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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