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Stuffed Cucumbers
Peel large cucumbers. Remove a narrow piece from the side, and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. Fill the cavity with nicely flavored force-meat, replace the piece, and bind it round with strong white thread. Line the bottom of a saucepan with slices of meat and bacon, put the cucumber upon it, and then 2 or 3 more slices. Cover the whole with nicely flavored stock, and, if more vegetables are desired, 2 or 3 sliced carrots, turnips, and onions may be added. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer gently, until cucumber, meat, and vegetables are sufficiently cooked. If the cucumber is tender before the rest, it should be taken out, and kept hot. Thicken the gravy with a little butter and flour, and pour it over the cucumber. Time, about one hour.
A Victorian braise in which the cucumber is the vessel and the meat beneath it is both flavouring and the beginnings of the sauce. Nothing here is difficult, but the timings need adjusting: cucumber collapses long before a slab of stewing meat is tender.
- Force-meatForce-meat is a seasoned ground-meat stuffing, typically veal, pork or chicken bound with breadcrumbs or panade and egg, and flavoured with herbs, mace or nutmeg. The recipe gives no quantity; judge it by the size of the hollowed cavity. Sausage meat with chopped parsley and a little onion is the simplest modern stand-in.
- Choose the cucumberThis wants a large, thick-walled ridge or field cucumber, not a thin-skinned English one, which will slump. Seed cavities should be wide enough to hold a real spoonful of stuffing.
- BindingCotton butcher's twine replaces the "strong white thread"; two or three ties around the length hold the lid on. Remove it before serving.
- The meat liningThe slices of meat and bacon are there to keep the cucumber off the pan bottom and enrich the liquid. Any cheap stewing cut works. Note that these slices are meant to be eaten as part of the dish, not discarded.
- Liquid and heatThe original says to cover the whole with stock once the further slices of meat are laid on. Keep it at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, which helps stop the stuffing breaking out.
- Split the timingThe hour in the original is for the meat and root vegetables. A stuffed cucumber is done in 25-35 minutes, once the flesh is translucent and the stuffing reaches 165F. Lift it out then and hold it warm, exactly as the recipe advises, rather than waiting on the beef.
- ThickeningKnead equal parts soft butter and flour into a paste, whisk it into the liquid off the heat, then return it to a boil briefly to cook out the flour. The original says only "a little" of each, so add it by degrees until the gravy just coats.
- YieldOne large stuffed cucumber serves two as a light main course, one as a substantial one. The braising meat and vegetables extend it further.