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Salad

Cucumbers, with Eggs

Cucumbers and eggs served on crostini with white sauce and rice rolls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cucumbers, with Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Pare the cucumbers and cut them into 3‑inch pieces, removing the centers.

  2. Place the cucumbers in a stewpan with a little hot stock or water, cover, and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes until tender.

Make the egg sauce

  1. Rub the yolk of 1 egg through a wire sieve and set aside.

  2. Dice the remaining eggs and add them to the hot white sauce along with the grated cheese.

Assemble and serve

  1. Drain the cucumbers and place them on crostini, pressing the mixture lightly into each piece.

  2. Garnish with the sieved yolk of egg and arrange the rice rolls around the base.

  3. Serve the remaining sauce in a sauceboat.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Bread + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,259 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cheese + ricetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 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 (in the method)
Their moisture and mild flavor form the main body of the dish once cooked until tender.
White sauce
Binds the diced eggs and cheese together and carries the creamy texture over the cucumbers.
Eggs
Diced whites and sieved yolk add body, texture and a rich, creamy flavor.
Grated cheese
Melts into the hot white sauce, adding savory flavor and a little richness.

The step that matters

Simmering the cucumbers. Simmering gently in a little liquid softens the cucumber until tender without breaking it apart. Boiling hard can make it mushy and waterlogged, so it will not hold its shape on the crostini.

“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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