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Baked Cucumbers

Cucumbers are hollowed, filled with a tomato, onion, celery, and Tabasco mixture, topped with breadcrumbs and butter, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut cucumbers lengthwise and scoop out the center.

  2. Chop tomatoes, onions, and celery; combine with Tabasco sauce and cook until thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill cucumber shells with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and add a piece of butter on top.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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 + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the edible boat shells that hold the filling while baking.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that cook down into the filling.
Onions
Add savory flavor and body to the cooked filling.
Celery
Adds a crisp, savory vegetable base to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a topping that absorbs moisture and browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown and enriches flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thick. Tomatoes and celery release water as they cook. Reducing that liquid thickens the filling so it stays in the cucumber shells instead of making the boats soggy while baking.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, onion, sauce, bread, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, onion, sauce, bread, 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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