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Another Wat to Stew Cucumbers

A stew of cucumbers simmered in a ham and onion gravy, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Another Wat to Stew Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Peel the cucumbers.

  2. Soak the cucumbers in vinegar, water, and salt for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the cucumbers.

  4. Place the cucumbers in a saucepan.

Stew

  1. Add gravy, ham, onion, parsley, and thyme to the saucepan.

  2. Cover the saucepan.

  3. Stew until the cucumbers are tender.

  4. Remove the cucumbers from the saucepan.

  5. Strain the gravy.

Thicken and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour.

  2. Boil the thickened gravy.

  3. Pour the thickened gravy over the cucumbers.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cucumber + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the dish and soften into tender pieces during stewing.
Gravy
Acts as the cooking liquid that carries flavor and keeps the cucumbers moist.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells when the liquid is heated.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish to the thickened gravy.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the cucumbers and balances the rich gravy.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor to the gravy as it stews.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with butter and flour. Flour must be fully mixed in and boiled so its starch swells and thickens the gravy evenly, without lumps or a raw floury taste.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, ham, onion, clove, parsley, thyme, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, ham, onion, clove, parsley, thyme, butter. 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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