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Salad

Cucumber Dressing

A chilled cucumber and onion dressing with olive oil, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Cucumber Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the cucumbers and split them lengthwise.

  2. Remove all seeds from the cucumbers.

Make the dressing

  1. Place the cucumbers and onion in a food chopper and grind them as coarse as possible.

  2. Add olive oil, salt, white pepper, paprika, and vinegar.

  3. Chill before serving.

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.

  1. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the bulk and fresh, watery body of the dressing.
White onion
Adds sharp, aromatic flavor that balances the cucumber's mildness.
White vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and sharpens its flavor.
Olive oil
Contributes fat that gives the dressing a smoother, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Grind the cucumbers and onion as coarse as possible. Cucumbers are mostly water, so finely processed pieces release excess liquid and turn the dressing thin and mushy. A coarse grind keeps more texture and body.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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