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Stewed Cucumbers

Stewed cucumbers are cucumber pieces simmered in butter, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumber

  1. Peel the cucumber and cut it lengthwise into four pieces.

  2. Scoop out the seeds and cut the pieces into 3-inch lengths.

  3. Boil the cucumber pieces in a saucepan of salted water until they bend easily.

  4. Drain the cucumbers in a sieve.

Stew and serve

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the drained cucumbers, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Toss over the heat until thoroughly heated through.

  3. Serve in a hot dish.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumber
Forms the main body of the dish and softens into tender pieces when boiled and stewed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the cucumber as it stews.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma that brightens the buttery cucumber.

The step that matters

Boiling until they bend easily. Boiling softens the cucumber's firm flesh so it becomes pliable and tender. Undercooking leaves it crisp and watery, while overcooking turns it mushy and loses shape.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, pepper. 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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