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Sauce

White Cucumber Sauce

A sauce made from boiled cucumbers mixed with bechamel, egg yolks, and chili vinegar or lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

White Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and boil

  1. Quarter the cucumbers and remove the seeds and rinds.

  2. Cut the cucumbers into 1-inch lengths.

  3. Boil the cucumbers in salted water for 15–18 minutes.

Sieve and mix

  1. Press the water from the cucumbers using the back of a spoon and sieve them.

  2. Mix the sieved cucumbers with the bechamel sauce without boiling again, and serve hot.

Richer variation

  1. For a richer flavor, boil cucumbers in seasoned veal gravy, then stir in beaten egg yolks and chili vinegar or lemon juice just 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 + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Make up the bulk of the sauce and give it its fresh, mild flavor and moisture.
Bechamel or thick white sauce
Provides the body and creamy texture that holds the cucumber purée together.
Egg yolks
Add richness and gently thicken the sauce when stirred in without overheating.
Chili vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Press out the water and do not reboil after mixing. Excess water thins the sauce and dilutes its flavor, so press the cucumbers well before sieving. Boiling the mixture again can break the bechamel and curdle the egg yolks, leaving a grainy texture.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, egg, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, egg, vinegar, sugar. 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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