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Stuffed Cucumbers

Stuffed cucumbers wrapped in bacon and baked with veal filling and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Stuffed Cucumbers

Why it works: Veal and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,890 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut cucumbers into 2‑inch thick slices and remove the ends, seeds, and peel.

  2. Scald the slices for 10 minutes, then plunge them into cold water and drain.

Stuff and bake

  1. Line a fire‑proof dish with thin slices of scalded bacon.

  2. Fill the center holes of the cucumber rings with veal force‑meat until level.

  3. Wrap each cucumber slice in bacon and tie with string.

  4. Pour 2 cups of strong stock into the dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 20 minutes.

  5. Carefully remove the bacon and place the cucumbers in a serving dish.

Serve

  1. Serve with Robert sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Veal + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,890 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Cucumber + meattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 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

Large young cucumbers
Form the edible shell that holds the filling, softened by scalding before stuffing.
Unsmoked bacon
Wraps each slice, adding savory fat that flavors and moistens the cucumber during baking.
Veal force-meat
Fills the centers and sets as it bakes, giving the dish its firm, savory filling.
Strong stock
Poured into the dish to moisten and flavor the cucumbers and bacon as they bake.

The step that matters

Scalding the cucumber slices. Scald for the stated time, then cool quickly in cold water. Too long in hot water turns cucumber soft and mushy, and it may not hold the filling through baking.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, meat):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat. 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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