Name: Cucumber Pickles, to Make
Ingredients: Cucumbers; Salt; Vinegar; Spices (such as dill, mustard seeds, or peppercorns)

Why it works: Cucumber and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Pickles, to Make

Ingredients

Cucumbers
Salt
Vinegar
Spices (such as dill, mustard seeds, or peppercorns)

Directions

Wash and slice the cucumbers.
Sprinkle salt over the cucumbers and let them sit for a few hours.
Rinse the cucumbers to remove excess salt.
In a pot, combine vinegar and spices, then bring to a boil.
Pack the cucumbers into sterilized jars and pour the hot vinegar mixture over them.
Seal the jars and let them cool before storing in a cool, dark place.

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 + dilltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together530 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Vinegar + dilltop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together659 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).