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Cucumbers Stewed in Butter

A dish of cucumbers stewed in butter, veal gravy, rich cream, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Cucumbers Stewed in Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cucumbers.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan and add the sliced cucumbers.

  3. Cook the cucumbers for 15 to 18 minutes without browning.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add the veal gravy and bring to a simmer.

  2. Stir in the rich cream and sugar 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. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cucumber + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together439 recipes

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

  5. Butter + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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, softening into tender pieces as they cook gently in butter.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour while the cucumbers cook without browning.
Veal gravy
Supplies savoury liquid that forms the body of the sauce.
Rich cream
Adds fat and smoothness, mellowing the sauce and giving it a rounded texture.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savoury gravy and cream.

The step that matters

Cook without browning. Cooking the cucumbers gently over moderate heat for the full 15 to 18 minutes lets them soften and release water without the butter and sugars browning. Browning would change the pale, delicate flavour the dish depends on.

Swap the cucumber

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, veal, cream, 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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