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Cucumber Sandwich

A sandwich with thinly sliced cucumbers marinated in salt water, wine or vinegar, lemon, and butter on brown bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Cucumber Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Slice the cucumbers very thinly.

  2. Soak the cucumber slices in cold salt water for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the cucumbers and pour over white wine or tarragon vinegar with lemon juice.

  4. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour.

Assemble

  1. Lay the cucumber slices on small rounds of brown bread.

  2. Spread butter on top of the cucumber slices.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

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

  4. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the crisp, watery bulk that gives the sandwich its fresh texture.
White wine or tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the cucumber and balances the richness of the butter.
Butter
Adds fat and a smooth, rich layer that carries the flavour of the filling.
Brown bread
Gives a sturdy base that holds the cucumber slices and adds a nutty, earthy note.

The step that matters

Soak the cucumber slices in cold salt water. Salt draws water out of the cucumber by osmosis, so draining well before adding acid keeps the slices crisp and stops the sandwich from becoming soggy.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, lemon, butter, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, lemon, butter, bread. 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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