Name: Cucumber Catsup
Ingredients: 4 pints cold vinegar; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 tablespoons grated horseradish

Why it works: Pepper and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,646 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cucumber Catsup

Ingredients

4 pints cold vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons grated horseradish

Directions

Drain the pulp from the cucumbers.
Add the vinegar, salt, cayenne, and horseradish to the drained pulp.
Bottle the mixture, cork tightly, and seal.

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.

Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,646 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Provides the acidity that gives the catsup its sharp flavor and helps preserve it.
Cayenne pepper: Adds a background heat that gives the sauce its sharpness.
Horseradish: Adds a pungent, sharp aroma and bite.