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Stewed Cucumbers

Stewed cucumbers simmered with vinegar, onions, bacon or lard, and gravy, thickened with cullis.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Stewed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare the cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and trim into oval-shaped pieces.

  2. Marinate the cucumber pieces with vinegar, sliced onions, pepper, and salt for 2 hours.

  3. Squeeze the cucumbers dry using a linen cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. In a saucepan, toss the cucumbers in melted bacon or lard until they begin to brown.

  2. Add the gravy and simmer on low heat.

  3. When nearly ready to serve, skim off the fat and thicken with cullis.

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 + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, spoonable texture when stewed.
Bacon or lard
Adds fat for browning the cucumbers and a rich, savoury flavour.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid and savoury flavour in which the cucumbers simmer.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the marinated cucumbers.
Onions
Contribute aroma and savoury flavour during marinating.

The step that matters

Squeezing the cucumbers dry. Cucumbers hold a lot of water. If they are not pressed dry before browning in fat, they steam rather than brown, and the extra liquid thins the gravy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, vinegar, 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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