Why it works: Cucumber and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 722 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Place large, green cucumbers in a broad jar or stew pot and cover with a cabbage leaf.
Set in a warm place until they turn yellow.
Boil salt and water, then pour over the cucumbers, repeating until they are green.
Wash the cucumbers and place them over low heat in clean water with a bit of pounded alum and a cabbage leaf on top and bottom until just boiling.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Cut the cucumbers in half and carefully remove the seeds and soft pulp.
Soak the halves in cold spring water for two days, changing the water each day.
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 + cabbagetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together722 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
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