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Garnish of Cucumbers Farcis

A garnish of cucumbers filled with meat, bacon, parsley, green onion, and chicken consommé, simmered and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,564 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Garnish of Cucumbers Farcis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut cucumbers into 2‑inch lengths and scoop out the seeds.

  2. Peel off the green rind and trim the ends.

  3. Parboil cucumbers in water for 3 minutes, then plunge into cold water and drain.

Fill and braise

  1. Fill the cavities with quenelle force‑meat of fowls.

  2. Garnish a deep sauté pan with thin layers of fat bacon.

  3. Place the prepared cucumbers in the pan and add a faggot of parsley and green onion.

  4. Cover with more layers of fat bacon and moisten with white chicken consommé.

  5. Simmer gently on low heat for about 1 hour.

Glaze and serve

  1. Drain cucumbers on a napkin and place in another sauté pan with their own reduced liquor, free from grease.

  2. Roll cucumbers lightly in the glaze over high heat to give a bright appearance.

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 + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Form the stuffed shell and, once simmered, give the dish its tender body.
Fat bacon
Lines and covers the pan, adding savoury fat and flavour to the cucumbers as they cook.
Quenelle force-meat of fowls
Fills the cavities, setting into a soft, savoury stuffing as it cooks.
White chicken consomme
Moistens the pan during simmering, keeping the cucumbers moist and building a light, savoury liquor.

The step that matters

Roll cucumbers lightly in the glaze over high heat. Brief high heat reduces and concentrates the liquor into a glaze that clings and shines. Prolonged boiling would over-reduce it and dull the surface, so the roll should be quick and light.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, onion, chicken, meat):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, onion, chicken, meat. 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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