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Cucumbers Fried in Batter

Cucumbers fried in a batter of milk, egg, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cucumbers Fried in Batter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the cucumbers and slice them into ½-inch thick rounds.

  2. Soak the slices in ice water while preparing the batter.

  3. In a bowl, mix the milk, beaten egg, salt, paprika, flour, and baking powder until smooth.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the Cottolene in a deep pan.

  2. Dip each cucumber slice into the batter and carefully drop it into the hot oil.

  3. Fry until golden brown, then drain on a hot colander 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 + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main vegetable body that is coated and fried in the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter so it coats the cucumber slices and holds together while frying.
All-purpose flour
Forms the body of the batter, giving it thickness so it clings to the slices.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making it lighter and puffier as it fries.
Milk
Moistens the flour and egg into a smooth batter with a soft, tender interior.

The step that matters

Dip each slice and drop it into hot oil. The oil must be hot enough to set the batter quickly. If it is too cool, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp and golden.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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.

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