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Fillet of Cucumber

Stewed fillets of cucumber seasoned with butter, pepper, sugar, and salt.

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 ↓

Fillet of Cucumber

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cucumbers in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and soft part.

  2. Cut the cucumbers into 1‑inch lengths and trim them into an oval shape, ensuring they are all the same size.

Stew

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add the cucumbers, pepper, sugar, and salt to the stewpan.

  3. Stew the cucumbers until they are tender but do not acquire any color.

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 + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Cucumber + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,112 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 of the dish, becoming tender as they stew gently.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the cucumbers stew gently in the pan.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savoury seasoning.

The step that matters

Stew the cucumbers until tender but not colored. Over low heat the cucumbers soften gradually while keeping their pale colour. Higher heat or longer cooking can brown the butter and sugar and toughen or overcook the cucumber, so the pan should be watched closely.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, 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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