Why it works: Cucumber and sorrel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 119 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Cucumber Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumber
Slice the cucumber and sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt, then place the sliced cucumber between two plates to drain the juice.
Simmer the soup
Transfer the cucumber to a saucepan and cover with good white stock.
Simmer gently for 40 minutes.
Add more stock as needed and a little sorrel.
Season with salt and cayenne.
Thicken with ground rice or arrowroot.
When it boils, remove from heat for 1-2 minutes.
Finish with milk and egg yolks
Mix in the milk and egg yolks, ensuring the soup does not boil after adding the eggs.
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.
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Cucumber + sorreltop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together119 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cucumber + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together734 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sorrel + ricetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together63 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 and fresh, mild flavour of the soup.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the soup.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the soup as they set gently with heat.
- Ground rice or arrowroot
- Thickens the liquid so the soup has a fuller body.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks can curdle and turn grainy if the soup boils after they go in. Keeping the heat low lets them thicken the soup smoothly.
Swap the sorrel
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, rice, milk, egg):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Sorrelthe original
- Turmericfits about as well
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, rice, milk, 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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