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Cucumbers a Ea Poulette

A French cucumber dish sautéed in butter with vinegar, salt, flour, and veal stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Cucumbers a Ea Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Pare and slice the cucumbers very thin, or quarter them, remove the seeds, and cut into half‑inch lengths.

  2. Steep the cucumbers in vinegar and sprinkle with coarse sea salt for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain and press the cucumbers dry with a soft cloth.

  4. Flour the cucumbers well.

Cook in butter and stock

  1. In a saucepan, melt a slice of butter over medium heat until it begins to boil.

  2. Add the cucumbers and gently shake them for 10 minutes, ensuring they do not color.

  3. Gradually pour in enough veal stock or gravy to nearly cover the cucumbers.

  4. When it boils, skim off the fat.

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. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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).

Flour and butter 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 body that softens during gentle cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the cucumbers and balances the rich sauce.
Flour
Coats the cucumbers so the sauce thickens and clings to them.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor for gentle cooking without browning.
Veal stock or gravy
Forms the savory liquid that cooks the cucumbers and builds the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the cucumbers and shake gently for 10 minutes without browning. Over-high heat or vigorous stirring can brown the flour and toughen or break the cucumbers. Gentle, moderate heat keeps them tender and pale, so the floured coating thickens the stock smoothly rather than tasting scorched.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, flour, butter, veal. 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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