Name: Cucumber Salad
Ingredients: 3 medium-sized cucumbers; ½ teaspoon ground white pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 2 tablespoons salad oil

Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chill the cucumbers on ice until thoroughly cold.
Peel the cucumbers, ensuring no green skin remains.
Slice the cucumbers very thinly and arrange them in a glass dish or shallow bowl.

Dress and serve

Mix the ground white pepper and salt, then sprinkle over the cucumbers.
Combine the vinegar and salad oil, then pour over the cucumbers.

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 + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
White pepper + vinegartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,154 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cucumber + white peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 bulk of the salad, which is why they are chilled and sliced thinly.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Salad oil: Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth mouthfeel.