Name: Mixed Pickles
Ingredients: 300 small cucumbers; 4 green peppers, sliced finely; 2 large or 3 small heads cauliflower; 3 heads white cabbage, shaved finely; 9 large onions, sliced; 1 large root horseradish

Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mixed Pickles

Ingredients

300 small cucumbers
4 green peppers, sliced finely
2 large or 3 small heads cauliflower
3 heads white cabbage, shaved finely
9 large onions, sliced
1 large root horseradish

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers by washing them thoroughly.
Slice the green peppers finely and set aside.
Cut the cauliflower into small florets.
Shave the white cabbage finely.
Slice the onions and horseradish root.
Combine all the prepared vegetables in a large bowl.

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 + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together584 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Cauliflower + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together139 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together305 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together640 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together481 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, horseradish):

Mustardfits better
Broccolifits better
Radishfits better
Onionthe original

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