Why it works: Cucumber and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,112 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Preserve Cucumbers
Ingredients
Directions
Split the cucumbers and remove all the seeds.
Soak them in saltwater that can float an egg for three days.
Place them in a pot with cold water and alum, then boil until tender.
Drain the cucumbers and pour a thin syrup over them.
Let them sit for two days, then boil the syrup again and pour it over the cucumbers.
Repeat this process two more times.
Prepare fresh clarified sugar boiled to a blow, then add the cucumbers and simmer for five minutes.
Let it sit overnight, then boil the syrup and cucumbers again and store in jars for use.
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 + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,112 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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