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Stewed Cucumbers

Stewed cucumbers simmered with butter, milk, and flour until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Cucumbers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumbers

  1. Pare the cucumbers.

  2. Soak them in ice water for 1 hour.

  3. Slice the cucumbers into ¼‑inch thick pieces.

  4. Remove the seeds.

Stew and mash

  1. Place the cucumbers in a saucepan.

  2. Cover with salted boiling water.

  3. Stew for 15 to 20 minutes.

  4. Drain the water.

  5. Mash the cucumbers.

  6. Add hot water to prevent burning.

  7. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

  8. Stew gently for 10 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. Add the milk.

  2. Thicken with flour.

  3. Bring to a boil and serve in a covered dish.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cucumber + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Make up the bulk of the dish and, once stewed and mashed, give it its soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the flavor of the mashed cucumbers.
Rich milk
Adds creaminess and moisture, turning the stew into a smooth, pourable dish.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the milky stew body.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour. Flour must be stirred in evenly and brought to a boil so its starch swells and thickens the liquid. Added in clumps or without enough heat, it leaves lumps or a thin, floury taste.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, milk, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, milk, flour. 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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