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Cucumbers Stewed in Butter

A side dish of cucumbers stewed in butter, veal gravy, 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

Cook the cucumbers

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced cucumbers and cook for 15 to 18 minutes without browning.

Make the sauce

  1. Pour in the pale veal gravy and bring to a simmer.

  2. Thicken the sauce with rich cream and stir in the 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
Provide the bulk and watery moisture that softens and forms the base of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness that carries flavour and helps the cucumbers cook gently.
Pale veal gravy
Supplies savoury body and liquid for the simmered sauce.
Rich cream
Thickens the sauce and gives it a smooth, mellow richness.

The step that matters

Cook the cucumbers without browning. Medium heat and a gentle cook let the cucumbers soften and release their moisture. Browning would add roasted, bitter notes that clash with the delicate pale sauce.

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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