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Cucumber Entree

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Cucumber Entree

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pan of boiling water, add salt and baking soda.

  2. Gently cook the cucumber pieces for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the cucumber and arrange it neatly on an entree dish.

  4. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour, cooking for a moment.

  5. Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks one at a time.

  7. Add vinegar, lemon juice, cayenne, and salt to taste.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

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

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, egg, vinegar, lemon, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, vinegar, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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