Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Cucumber Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cucumbers
Peel the cucumbers, cut them into thick slices, quarter them, and remove the seeds.
In a saucepan of boiling water, add the cucumbers and a little salt; boil for 10 minutes, then drain.
Melt 1 oz of butter in a stewpan, add the cucumbers, cover, and steam for about 1 hour, then rub through a fine sieve.
Make the soup
Melt the remaining 1 oz of butter in the stewpan, add the flour, then pour in the hot stock and milk, stirring until boiling.
Add the cucumber puree, simmer for a few minutes, then let the soup cool slightly.
Beat the egg yolks and cream together, pour into the soup, and stir until it thickens, ensuring it does not boil to prevent curdling.
Serve
Season to taste and serve with croutons of fried bread.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,991 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Provide the main vegetable flavour and, once pureed, the body of the soup.
- Flour
- Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the stock and milk.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the soup when gently heated, giving it a smooth, velvety texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour, and forms the base of the roux.
- Cream
- Adds richness and smoothness to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat, but if the soup boils after they are added they can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Keep the heat low and stir constantly.
Swap the cucumber
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, egg, cream, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Cucumberthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, egg, 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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