Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cucumber Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumber
Peel the cucumber and cut it into blocks.
Boil the cucumber in a saucepan of water with salt for 10-15 minutes until tender.
Make the soup
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour smoothly.
Add the stock and milk.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Add the cucumber and simmer for 10 minutes.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Return the strained soup to the saucepan to heat.
Finish and serve
Mix the cream and egg yolks together.
Strain the mixture into the soup.
Cook the soup for one minute.
Season to taste and serve.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cucumber
- Forms the body of the soup and gives it its main flavour and texture once rubbed smooth.
- Butter
- Fat that carries flavour and starts the roux with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock by forming a roux with the melted butter, giving the soup body.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and adds savoury depth.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the soup when stirred in, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, softening the flavour and smoothing the texture.
The step that matters
Strain the mixture into the soup. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so they can curdle or scramble if the soup is too hot or boils after they are added. Keep the heat gentle and stir constantly while the cooking time is short.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, cream, egg):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, cream, egg. 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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