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Cucumber, Stuffed

A cucumber hollowed and filled with meat, bacon, and vegetables, then simmered in stock and finished with a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cucumber, Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumber

  1. Peel the cucumber.

  2. Remove a narrow piece from the side.

  3. Scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon.

  4. Fill the cavity with forcemeat.

  5. Replace the piece.

  6. Bind the cucumber with strong white thread.

Simmer

  1. Line the bottom of a saucepan with slices of meat and bacon.

  2. Place the cucumber on top.

  3. Add two or three more slices of meat.

  4. Cover with flavored stock.

  5. Add sliced carrots, turnips, and onions if desired.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

  7. Simmer gently until the cucumber, meat, and vegetables are cooked.

  8. If the cucumber becomes tender before the rest, remove it and keep it hot.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with a little butter and flour.

  2. Pour it over the cucumber.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cucumber + turniptop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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 that is hollowed and filled, becoming tender during gentle simmering.
Forcemeat
Fills the cavity, giving the dish its savory, rich filling.
Butter and flour
Together form a roux that thickens the gravy and gives it body.
Flavored stock
Cooks the dish in liquid and becomes the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Remove the cucumber when it turns tender. Cucumber softens much faster than the meat and vegetables. Leaving it in the simmer until the rest is cooked can make it fall apart and turn mushy.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, turnip, onion, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, turnip, onion, pepper, butter, flour. 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.

More stuffed cucumber recipes

Rings 3 See all 8 →

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