Cooked Cucumber Recipes and How to Prepare Them Raw
In reading through 1800s cookbooks, I was amazed to see recipes for fried, boiled, stewed, and stuffed cucumbers, as well as cucumber catsup and vinegar, and soup.
I’ve only eaten cucumbers raw, so these recipes sound interesting.
INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS
CUCUMBERS AND THEIR PREPARATION
In food value, cucumbers are very low, comparing closely with celery in this respect. However, as they contain a large amount of cellulose, or bulk, and mineral salts, they should not be disregarded in the diet. They have a rather strong flavor due to their volatile oils, which so frequently disagree with persons and which give cucumbers a reputation for being difficult to digest. However, when they are properly prepared, they can be eaten by most persons without harm.
To be healthy, they should not be picked longer than a day before they are to be eaten. Cucumbers should be gathered while the dew is on them, and eaten the same day. They should be as fresh from the vine as possible, few vegetables being more unwholesome when long gathered. Raw cucumbers are easily wilted, and are then unfit for serving. Soak them in pure cold, unsalted water until serving time.
COOKED CUCUMBER SALAD
Peel and slice a cucumber into quarter-inch slices, and if not very young, remove the seeds. Place the slices in a stewpan together with two tablespoons water, one ounce butter, one-fourth teaspoon salt, and a little grated nutmeg. Simmer until tender, leaving the lid off so as to reduce the liquor. Taking care not to break them, lift out the slices and arrange them in a dish. Sprinkle with pepper, pour over the sauce, and do not serve until perfectly cold.
BOILED CUCUMBERS
Peel the cucumbers unless very young and tender. Put into boiling salted water, and when boiled, throw them into cold water to firm them. When ready for use, heat them in butter quickly without frying them, season with salt and pepper, pour over any good sauce and serve.
STEWED CUCUMBERS
Take middle-sized cucumbers and cut them in slices, but not too thin. Sprinkle over them a little salt to bring out the water. Put them into a stew-pan with a little gravy, some whole pepper, a lump of butter, and a spoon or two of vinegar to your taste. Let them boil all together, thicken them with flour, and serve them up with sippets* of toast.
*sippets – bits of dry toast cut into a triangular form.
FRIED FRESH CUCUMBERS
Peel the cucumbers and lay in ice-water half an hour. Cut lengthwise into slices nearly half an inch thick, and lay in ice-water ten minutes longer. Wipe each piece dry with a soft cloth, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and dredge with flour. Fry to a delicate brown in sweet clarified dripping, nice lard, or butter. Many declare that cucumbers are never fit to eat unless fried, and they are assuredly far more wholesome than when served raw.
FRIED BOILED CUCUMBERS
Boil a good-sized cucumber till nearly soft in milk and water flavored slightly with onion. Remove and drain dry, then cut it up into slices about a third of an inch thick. When cold, brush each slice with egg. Dip in bread crumbs or make a batter and dip each slice in this. Fry in butter till amber brown. Serve in the center of a hot dish with mashed potatoes around it.
CUCUMBER SAUCE
Wash three medium-sized cucumbers. Grate, peel and all, and pour off some of the extra liquid. Add one tablespoon each of white pepper, salt and horse radish. Lastly add one-half pint of vinegar. This is very nice, and will keep any length of time.
PURÉE OF CUCUMBERS
Peel and slice the cucumbers and put them over the fire in as little boiling water as will cook them. When tender, drain from the water, press through a purée sieve, season with salt and pepper and add a tablespoon of butter.
STUFFED CUCUMBERS
Select three medium-sized cucumbers, wash and peel them, and cut them in half lengthwise. Hollow out the center so that the cucumbers will have the shape of boats. Then melt two tablespoons butter in a frying pan, add one small onion, chopped, one teaspoon salt, and a dash of pepper. Heat together for a few minutes. Next add one and one-half cups steamed rice, one cup stewed tomatoes, and sufficient bread crumbs to take up any excess of moisture. Fill the cucumbers with this mixture and pour a small amount of hot water into the pan in which the cucumbers are to be baked. Bake until they are soft enough to be easily pierced with a fork. Serve hot.
CUCUMBER VINEGAR
Pare and slice fifteen large cucumbers and put them into a stone jar. Add three pints of vinegar, four large onions sliced, two or three shallots, a little garlic, two large spoons of salt, three teaspoons of pepper, and half a teaspoon of cayenne. Let it stand four or five days, then boil it all up and when cold, strain the liquor through a piece of muslin. Store it away in small bottles well sealed. This vinegar is a very nice addition to gravies, hashes, &e., as well as a great improvement to salads, or to eat with cold meat.
CUCUMBER CATSUP
Take twelve large, full-grown cucumbers and four onions. Peel the cucumbers and take the skin off the onions. Grate them and let the pulp drain through a sieve for several hours. Then season highly with salt and pepper, and add good cider vinegar until the pickle tastes strongly of it, and it rises a little to the top. Put it in jars or wide-mouthed bottles, and cork or seal them so as to be airtight. The pickle tastes more like the fresh cucumber than anything else, and will pay for the making.
CUCUMBER SOUP
Pare one large cucumber, quarter it, and take out the seeds. Cut it in thin slices and put these on a plate with a little salt to draw the water from them. Drain, and put them in your stewpan with a piece of butter the size of a walnut. When they are warmed through without being browned, pour one quart of medium stock on them. Add a little chervil and sorrel cut in large pieces, and add salt and pepper to taste. Boil for forty minutes. Mix the well-beaten yolks of two eggs with one gill* of cream, and add at the moment of serving.
*gill – a liquid measurement; four ounces in the U.S. and five ounces in the U.K.
TO DRESS CUCUMBERS RAW
They should be kept in cold water, and fifteen or twenty minutes before they are to be eaten, pare and slice them into fresh cold water to take out the slimy matter. Drain the water from them and transfer them to a deep dish. Season with a little salt and black pepper, and pour over them some of the best vinegar. You may mix with them a small quantity of sliced onions, not to be eaten, but to communicate a slight flavor of onion to the vinegar.
CUCUMBER SANDWICHES
These are very nice to serve with a fish course in place of bread or rolls. Slice the cucumbers very thin and soak them in ice water for one or two hours. They must be crisp and brittle and made just at serving time. Beat together three tablespoons olive oil, one tablespoon vinegar, one saltspoon* of salt, and a dash of pepper. Stand this dressing on the ice until it thickens. Butter thin slices of bread, cover them with a layer of cucumbers that have been drained and dried on a napkin, sprinkle over the dressing, and put on another layer of buttered bread. Press together, trim the crusts and cut into triangles. Heap these at once on a napkin and send to the table.
*saltspoon – a miniature spoon used with an open salt cellar for individual use before table salt was free-flowing.
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2 thoughts on “Cooked Cucumber Recipes and How to Prepare Them Raw”
Interesting article. I never would have thought to use cucumbers for some of those things. I have been juicing cucumbers and learned they are 96% water but also have some Vitamin A and minerals in them.
I’ve never had a cooked cucumber – only raw or as pickles. People didn’t have so many types of foods back in the 1800s, so they had to make a variety of recipes with what they had.