Skip to main content
Main

White Cucumber Sauce

A sauce made from boiled cucumbers mixed with béchamel or thick white sauce, optionally flavored with veal gravy, egg yolks, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

White Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

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

  2. Cut them into 1‑inch lengths.

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

  4. Press the water out with the back of a spoon.

  5. Sieve the cucumbers.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the sieved cucumbers with a few tablespoons of béchamel or thick white sauce.

  2. For a better flavor, boil cucumbers in seasoned veal gravy.

  3. Stir in beaten egg yolks.

  4. Add a pinch of sugar.

  5. Stir in chili vinegar or lemon juice just before serving.

  6. Do not boil again; serve hot.

Alternative method

  1. Alternatively, slice cucumbers.

  2. Stew the sliced cucumbers in butter without browning.

  3. Boil in pale veal gravy thickened with rich cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 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
Form the bulk of the sauce and give it its fresh, mild flavor.
Béchamel or thick white sauce
Gives body and a creamy texture to the sieved cucumbers.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat.
Veal gravy
Adds savory depth to the cucumbers as they cook.
Rich cream
Thickens the gravy and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Do not boil again; serve hot.. Egg yolks in the sauce can curdle and turn grainy if reheated to boiling, so the sauce should be kept hot but not boiled once the yolks are added.

Swap the cucumber

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, veal, egg, vinegar, butter, cream, 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.

More cucumber sauce recipes

White 19for Fish 3 See all 106 →

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes