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Stuffed Gucumhers

A dish of cucumber rings filled with veal force‑meat, wrapped in bacon, baked in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,890 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Gucumhers

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Cut cucumbers into 2‑inch thick slices, discarding the ends.

  2. Peel the cucumber slices.

  3. Remove the seeds from the slices.

  4. Scald the cucumber slices for 10 minutes.

  5. Plunge the slices into cold water.

  6. Drain the slices.

Stuff and bake

  1. Line a fire‑proof dish with thin slices of scalded bacon.

  2. Fill each cucumber ring with veal force‑meat until level.

  3. Wrap each cucumber slice in bacon.

  4. Tie the wrapped slices with string.

  5. Pour 2 cups of strong stock into the dish.

  6. Bake at 300 °F (150 °C) for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Carefully remove the cucumbers from the dish.

  2. Drain the cucumbers.

  3. Take off the bacon without disturbing the stuffing.

  4. Serve with Robert sauce.

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. Veal + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Cucumber + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Cucumber + meattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Large young cucumbers
Form the edible shell that holds the stuffing while it cooks.
Unsmoked bacon
Wraps the stuffed slices, adding fat and savory flavor as it cooks.
Veal force-meat
Forms the savory filling that sets as it bakes inside each cucumber ring.
Strong stock
Cooks the cucumbers gently in liquid and adds savory flavor to the dish.

The step that matters

Bake at 300 °F (150 °C) for 20 minutes. Gentle oven heat lets the force-meat set without drying out or turning tough. Cooking it too hot can cause the filling to shrink and separate from the cucumber.

Swap the cucumber

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat. 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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