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Cucumber Soup

A soup made from cucumbers, butter, flour, stock, milk, onion, mace, cream, egg yolks, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cucumber Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Peel cucumbers, slice, and remove seeds.

  2. Cook cucumbers in butter for ten minutes.

  3. Add flour and stock to the cucumbers.

Make the soup

  1. Scald milk with onion and mace.

  2. Combine the cucumber mixture with the milk mixture.

  3. Rub the combined mixture through a sieve.

  4. Reheat the soup to boiling point.

  5. Add cream and egg yolks.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

901Calories
30 gProtein
32 gFat
123 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 soup and give it its fresh, mild flavour.
Butter
Fat that cooks the cucumbers gently and carries flavour.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the stock.
White stock iii
Forms the liquid base of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when added near the end.

The step that matters

Adding cream and egg yolks after reheating. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can curdle or scramble if the soup is at a hard boil. Reheat gently and keep the soup just below boiling once the yolks and cream go in, so it stays smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, butter, flour, milk, onion, cream, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, butter, flour, milk, onion, cream, egg. 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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