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Sauce

Cucumber Sauce

A sauce made from grated cucumbers, thickened with flour and butter, flavored with stock and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 274 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Grate the cucumbers.

  2. Boil the grated cucumbers until tender.

Finish the sauce

  1. Thicken with flour and butter.

  2. Add a little stock and tarragon vinegar.

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 + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + tarragontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together788 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Form the bulk of the sauce, adding moisture and a fresh, mild flavor.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells and sets when heated in liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and mouthfeel.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and a sharp, aromatic note that brightens the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour and butter. Flour must be fully blended into the butter and hot cucumber liquid so it does not form lumps. Starch thickens only when heated enough to swell, so the sauce needs to stay warm long enough to reach a smooth, thickened texture.

Swap the cucumber

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

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

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