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Cucumbers a LA Creme

A French-style cucumber dish simmered in consommé and finished with a cream and egg yolk sauce.

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

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 a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Taste each cucumber end to ensure it is not bitter.

  2. Cut cucumbers in half, then into quarters, and remove seeds and skin, placing them in water.

Cook

  1. Heat clarified butter in a pan and add drained cucumbers.

  2. Fry cucumbers, turning occasionally, until lightly browned.

  3. Drain cucumbers on a sieve to remove excess butter.

  4. Place cucumbers in a stewpan with enough consommé to cover, a pinch of sugar, and salt.

  5. Cover with a round piece of paper and stew gently until nearly dry.

Serve

  1. Drain again on a sieve and arrange on a serving dish.

  2. Pour over a sauce made from cream and the egg yolk, and serve hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Main vegetable; gentle stewing softens their flesh while they absorb the consommé.
Clarified butter
Fat for frying that browns the cucumbers and adds rich flavour.
Consommé
Clear stock that moistens and seasons the cucumbers as they stew.
Egg yolk
Thickens the cream sauce through gentle heat, giving it a smooth, coating body.
Cream
Forms the base of the sauce, adding richness and a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Stew gently until nearly dry. Gentle heat under a paper cover lets the cucumbers soften and absorb the consommé without breaking apart, while excess liquid reduces so the dish is not watery.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, cream. 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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