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Cucumber Puree

A cucumber and ham soup made with stock, butter, onion, celery, egg, and cream, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cucumber Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the vegetables

  1. Slice the onion finely.

  2. Peel and cut the cucumber into small pieces.

  3. Cook the onion and cucumber gently in the butter over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add the stock, ham, and celery cut into small pieces.

  2. Cover the pot.

  3. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  5. Season well.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg and cream together.

  2. Boil the soup.

  3. Gradually whisk in the beaten egg mixture.

  4. Serve immediately with fried bread.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,745 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

  5. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cucumber
Provides the main fresh, delicate flavour and bulk of the soup.
Egg
Thickens the soup when gently whisked in, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness, mellowing the soup's flavour and texture.
Butter
Fat used to soften the onion and cucumber, carrying flavour into the soup.
White stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup, carrying the other flavours.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in the beaten egg mixture. Adding the egg and cream to very hot soup too quickly can scramble the egg. Whisking slowly while the soup is hot but not boiling lets the egg thicken it smoothly.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, onion, egg, celery, cream, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, onion, egg, celery, cream, pepper. 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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