Name: Milk Op Cucumber
Ingredients: 4 ounces sweet almonds; 1 pint fresh cucumber juice; 4 ounces essence of cucumber; 1 pound rectified spirit; wax spermaceti; olive oil

Why it works: Almond and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,875 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Milk Op Cucumber

Ingredients

Directions

Melt wax spermaceti and olive oil together at the lowest possible temperature.
Make an emulsion with sweet almonds and fresh cucumber juice.
Strain the mixture through muslin into the melted fats, stirring constantly.
Gradually add essence of cucumber and rectified spirit in small quantities, stirring constantly.
Allow to stand for 24 hours, then pour off the supernatant milky liquid.

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.

Almond + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Almond + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together166 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Spirit + olivetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together131 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Almond + spirittop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).