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Puree of Cucumbers

A cucumber puree made by boiling cucumbers in water or mutton broth, then pureeing and seasoning with butter, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Puree of Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Peel the cucumbers.

  2. Boil the peelings in water or mutton broth until flavorful.

  3. Taste and dilute if too bitter.

Make the puree

  1. Cut cucumbers into pieces and boil in the flavored liquid until pulpy.

  2. Squeeze the pulp through a colander.

  3. Return the pulp to the saucepan and season with butter, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

  4. Boil again carefully and pour the puree in the middle of the chops.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 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

Cucumbers
Form the main body of the puree once boiled and squeezed to a pulp.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the puree.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the cucumber.

The step that matters

Taste and dilute if too bitter. Cucumber peel can carry bitter compounds that concentrate as the liquid is boiled. Tasting before going further lets you dilute the liquid while it is still easy to correct, before the bitterness spreads through the whole puree.

Swap the cucumber

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, pepper, vinegar. 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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