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Stuffed Cucumbers

A dish of cucumbers filled with a mixture of roast beef, boiled ham, bread crumbs, butter, and seasoned with salt, cooked in beef stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Stuffed Cucumbers

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut cucumbers in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.

  2. Mix equal parts chopped roast beef and minced boiled ham with half as much fine bread crumbs.

  3. Moisten the stuffing with melted butter and season to taste.

Stuff and cook

  1. Fill the hollows of the cucumbers with the stuffing and press halves together.

  2. Tie the cucumbers with soft twine.

  3. Place in a roasting pan and pour in 1 cup of skimmed beef stock.

  4. Cook until tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the twine.

  2. Transfer to a hot platter.

  3. Thicken the gravy left in the pan.

  4. Pour the thickened gravy around the cucumbers.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Young cucumbers
Form the main body that is hollowed, filled and becomes tender when cooked.
Chopped roast beef
Provides savory meaty flavor and bulk to the stuffing.
Minced boiled ham
Adds salty, savory flavor and body to the stuffing.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the stuffing hold together rather than run out.
Melted butter
Moistens the stuffing and adds richness and flavor.
Skimmed beef stock
Cooks the cucumbers in liquid and provides the base for the gravy.

The step that matters

Cook until tender. Cucumbers are mostly water and soften gradually; cooking them gently in the stock keeps them from falling apart while the filling heats through.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, bread, butter):

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, bread, butter. 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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