Name: Mint Cucumber Sandwiches
Ingredients: Thin slices of fresh young cucumbers; Well-seasoned French dressing; Finely chopped fresh mint; White bread; Unsalted butter

Why it works: Cucumber and mint work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 884 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mint Cucumber Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Dip thin slices of cucumbers in well-seasoned French dressing.
Sprinkle finely chopped mint between slices of white bread spread with unsalted butter.
Assemble the sandwiches shortly before serving, ensuring all ingredients except the butter are very cold.

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 + minttop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together884 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cucumber + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together344 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mint + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together244 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cucumber + buttertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,185 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).