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Cucumbers, a LA Poulette

A cucumber salad dressed with a velouté sauce, butter, nutmeg, and egg yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cucumbers, a LA Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut cucumbers into scallops about 1 inch in diameter.

  2. Combine cucumbers with salt and vinegar.

  3. Let steep for several hours.

  4. Drain the cucumbers.

Cook and finish

  1. Place them in a saucepan with butter, nutmeg, and sugar.

  2. Simmer gently over low heat for about 30 minutes until tender.

  3. Pour off the butter.

  4. Add Velouté sauce and simmer for a few minutes.

  5. Mix egg yolks with milk.

  6. Incorporate the mixture into the cucumbers.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Cucumber + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together432 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish, becoming tender after gentle simmering.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it body and richness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the flavour of the nutmeg and sugar during cooking.
Velouté sauce
Provides a savoury base that gives the finished dish body and a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Incorporating the egg yolk and milk mixture. Egg yolks set at modest temperatures and can scramble if the pan is too hot or they are added without moderating. Keep the heat low and stir steadily so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, butter, nutmeg, sugar, sauce, egg, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, nutmeg, sugar, sauce, egg, milk. 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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