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Stewed Cucumbers

A dish of cucumbers simmered in cream and butter, seasoned with salt and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Slice the cucumbers into ½-inch thick rounds.

  2. Place them in a saucepan and cover with hot water.

  3. Boil slowly for 15 minutes until tender but not breaking.

  4. Drain the cucumbers.

Finish and serve

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream and butter until warm.

  2. Add the cucumbers, season with salt and white pepper.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes, shaking the saucepan continuously, and serve hot.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cucumber + white peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cucumber + buttertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,185 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Cream + white peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,439 recipes
  5. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main body and tender texture of the dish after slow boiling.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky moisture that coats the cucumbers.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, helping the cream turn into a rich, glossy sauce.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 15 minutes until tender but not breaking. Boiling gently keeps the cucumber rounds intact while the starches and cell walls soften. A hard boil would break them apart and make the dish mushy.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, white 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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