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Soup

Cream of Cucumber Soup

A creamy cucumber soup made with ham, butter, nutmeg, peppercorns, cream, sugar, and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream of Cucumber Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Combine the minced ham, butter, nutmeg, peppercorns, and cucumbers in a stewpan.

  2. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

  3. Add the white sauce.

  4. Quickly reduce on high heat with the stock until it resembles a soft paste.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the cream and sugar.

  2. Boil for an additional 5 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Heat it in the stewpan before serving.

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

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Nutmeg + cucumbertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together432 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 and fresh flavour of the soup.
Double cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the cooking.
White sauce
Adds body and thickness, helping the soup hold together.
Lean ham
Contributes savoury, meaty flavour to the base.

The step that matters

Reducing on high heat with the stock. Reducing quickly to a soft paste concentrates the flavour and thickens the base. If it is over-reduced or scorches on the bottom, the soup will taste burnt and may not blend smoothly, so stir constantly and watch closely.

Swap the cucumber

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, nutmeg, cream, sugar, sauce. 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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