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Dessert

Cucumbers a LA Creme

A French cucumber dish sautéed in clarified butter, simmered in consommé, topped with a cream sauce of egg yolk and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cucumbers a LA Creme

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cucumbers a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Taste each end of the cucumbers to ensure they are not bitter.

  2. Cut the cucumbers in half, then into quarters, removing the seeds and skin.

  3. Toss the cut cucumbers in water as you prepare them.

Cook

  1. Heat clarified butter in a pan and fry the cucumbers until they are a light color, turning occasionally.

  2. Drain the cucumbers on a sieve to remove excess butter.

  3. Place the drained cucumbers in a stewpan with enough consommé to cover them, a little sugar, and salt.

  4. Cover with a round paper and simmer gently until nearly dry.

Serve

  1. Drain again on a sieve and arrange neatly on a dish.

  2. Pour over a cream sauce made with the egg yolk and a little cream.

  3. Serve very 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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
Their firm flesh holds its shape through frying and slow simmering.
Clarified butter
Fat that browns the cucumber surface lightly while frying, adding richness.
Consomme
Seasoned broth that cooks the cucumbers gently and flavours them as it reduces.
Egg yolk
Thickens the cream sauce and gives it a smooth, rich texture.
Cream
Adds fat and body to the sauce, making it smooth and mellow.

The step that matters

Simmer until nearly dry. Cucumbers are mostly water. Simmering gently while covered softens them and lets liquid evaporate slowly, so they stay tender without turning watery or mushy.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, cream. 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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