Name: An Old Way of Pickling Cucumbers
Ingredients: Cucumbers; Coarse sea salt; Vinegar; Cayenne pepper; Whole ginger; Whole pepper; Mustard seed; West India pickles (optional)

Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

An Old Way of Pickling Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the cucumbers lengthwise into small pieces, leaving the peel on.
Sprinkle the cucumbers with coarse sea salt and let them sit for 24 hours.
Dry the cucumbers with a cloth.
In a deep dish, combine vinegar, cayenne pepper, whole ginger, whole pepper, and mustard seed; boil this mixture.
Let the mixture cool until nearly cold, then pour it over the cucumbers.
Bottle the cucumbers and store in a dry place.
The pickles will be ready to eat a few days after making.

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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,281 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, vinegar, pepper, mustard):

Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Capersfits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, pepper, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.