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Sauce

Modern Cookery

A sautéed cucumber sauce made with butter, broth or gravy, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,991 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the cucumbers.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan.

  3. Add the cucumbers and sauté for five minutes.

Finish the sauce

  1. Pour in the broth or gravy and heat through.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Serve the sauce hot.

  4. Optionally, brown a minced onion with the cucumbers and add a spoonful of vinegar 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 + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + buttertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,185 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main body and fresh, mild flavour, softening and releasing water as they cook.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries flavour when the cucumbers are sautéed.
Broth or gravy
Supplies the liquid that turns the sauce smooth and adds savoury depth.

The step that matters

Sautéing the cucumbers. Cucumbers are mostly water. Sautéing them long enough softens them and drives off some liquid, so the sauce does not turn thin and raw-tasting.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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