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Eggs and Cucumbers

A savory dish of cucumbers, ham, onion, gravy, cream, poached eggs, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Eggs and Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cucumber sauce

  1. In a stew pan, combine diced cucumbers, ham, and onion with cloves.

  2. Add gravy and simmer slowly, shaking occasionally until cooked.

  3. Remove the ham and onion from the pan.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg yolks and cream until well combined.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a serving dish and top with poached eggs.

  2. Squeeze lemon juice over the dish before serving.

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

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

  2. Cucumber + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,319 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main body and fresh, mild flavour of the dish as they soften while simmering.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness when gently stirred into the warm liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.
Gravy
Supplies moisture and savoury flavour as the cucumbers simmer.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the sauce is too hot or they are added without enough stirring. Keep the heat low and stir steadily so the sauce turns smooth and creamy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, ham, onion, clove, egg, cream):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Pumpkinfits about as well
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, ham, onion, clove, egg, cream. 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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