Skip to main content
Sauce

Common Cucumber Sauce

A sauce made from sliced cucumbers simmered in butter and beef broth, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Common Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and slice the cucumbers.

  2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the cucumbers and cook gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour without browning.

  2. Gradually pour in the beef broth or brown gravy.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 5 minutes.

  4. Serve the sauce hot.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Cucumber + beeftop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together576 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Young cucumbers
Provide the main body and mild flavor of the sauce as they soften gently in butter.
Butter
Carries the cucumbers' flavor and gives the sauce a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Beef broth or brown gravy
Supplies the liquid and savory depth that forms the body of the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the cucumbers gently without browning. Over-high heat or browning turns the butter and cucumber sugars bitter and dark, and the slow, gentle cooking softens the cucumbers evenly so they break down into a smooth sauce.

Swap the cucumber

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, 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.

More cucumber sauce recipes

White 19for Fish 3 See all 106 →

You might also like

Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipesCaper SauceCaper Sauce180 recipesBrown SauceBrown Sauce141 recipesDutch SauceDutch Sauce74 recipes