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Cucumber Aspic

A chilled cucumber aspic served in lettuce cups with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cucumber Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Peel the cucumbers. If young, leave the seeds; if large, cut lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.

  2. Run the cucumbers through a meat chopper using the smallest blade to make 2 cups of pulp.

Make the aspic

  1. Add salt, paprika, cayenne, grated onion, white stock, orange juice, and lemon juice to the pulp.

  2. Soak the gelatine in cold water until dissolved, then mix it into the cucumber mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into small molds and refrigerate until cold.

Serve

  1. Turn out the aspic into lettuce cups and serve with mayonnaise dressing.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 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

Cucumber pulp
Provides the main body and fresh cucumber flavour of the aspic.
Quick gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and turned out.
White stock
Adds savoury depth and liquid to the cucumber base.
Grated onion
Adds a sharp, aromatic flavour that balances the cucumber.

The step that matters

Soaking the gelatine until dissolved. Gelatine must fully dissolve before mixing, otherwise undissolved granules leave gritty spots and the aspic will not set evenly. Chilling then firms it into a stable gel.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, orange, lemon, lettuce):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, orange, lemon, lettuce. 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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