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Stuffed Cucumbers
Chop fine any kind of cold cooked meat, measure and add to it one-half of its bulk of cold boiled rice and a high seasoning of salt, pepper, onion juice and a pinch of curry powder. Pare large cucumbers, cut in two-inch lengths and carefully scoop out the centers. Fill with the stuffing and lay in a shallow pan. Pour in a half inch of seasoned beef stock, cover and simmer slowly at the side of the fire until the cucumbers are tender. Serve on thin squares of toast, pouring the gravy round at the last.
A leftovers dish built on the same logic as stuffed peppers or marrow, and it works as well now as it did then. The main adjustments are the heat source and the cucumbers themselves.
- "At the side of the fire"On a coal range this meant the cooler edge of the stovetop, where a pan holds a bare tremble rather than a boil. On a modern hob that is the lowest setting on the smallest burner, or a covered pan in a 325F oven, which is easier to control. Figure 25-35 minutes until a knife slips into the cucumber wall without resistance.
- Choose the right cucumberThe recipe asks only for large cucumbers, and a thick-walled field type suits it better than a thin-walled English or Persian one. Look for the largest, fattest cucumbers available; a slim one will collapse before the filling is hot through. Scoop the seed core out with a melon baller or a narrow spoon, leaving a good quarter inch of flesh all round.
- Proportions"One-half of its bulk" is by volume, not weight: two cups of chopped meat to one cup of cooked rice. Both are already cooked, so the simmer is only heating the filling and softening the cucumber.
- Onion juiceA period standby, made by grating a halved onion on a fine grater and using the liquid that collects. It gives onion flavour without visible pieces. A teaspoon of grated onion or a pinch of onion powder does the same job.
- Season harder than feels right"A high seasoning" is the operative instruction. Cold cooked meat and boiled rice are both bland, and the cucumber releases a great deal of water as it cooks, which dilutes everything further. Taste the filling before it goes in and push the salt and pepper past the point that seems correct.
- The stock and the gravyHalf an inch of beef stock in a shallow pan will thin out as the cucumbers weep. Lift the finished pieces onto the toast, then reduce the pan liquid hard for a few minutes, or slacken a teaspoon of cornstarch into it, before pouring it round.
- The toast mattersIt is there to absorb the liquid that the cucumbers give up. Cut it thin, toast it dry and firm, and put it down at the last moment so it does not go to paste.
- YieldTwo large cucumbers cut into two-inch lengths give roughly eight to ten pieces, enough for four as a light main course with about two cups of filling.
Stuffed cucumber belongs to a whole family of Victorian and Edwardian "made dishes" whose real purpose was to get Sunday's roast onto the table again on Tuesday without it looking like leftovers. Cookbooks of this stripe, sold on economy, return again and again to the same trick: mince the cold meat, stretch it with rice or breadcrumbs, hide it inside a vegetable, and dress the result with gravy and toast so it reads as a composed course. The pinch of curry powder is a period marker in itself. By the late nineteenth century commercial curry powder was a fixture in British and American pantries, and it is often said to have served less as a nod to Indian cooking than as a general savoury lift for reheated meat, in much the way a cook now reaches for Worcestershire sauce. Cooking cucumber rather than eating it raw was also far more ordinary then than now, and it is a habit worth reviving: heat turns it silky and faintly melon-like.