HFF 4.14: Fresh Start

The Challenge:  Fresh Start: Half-way through the year, make something 'fresh'. If you've fallen behind on challenges, take this as a chance to re-start.

The Recipe: Cucumbers in German Style from Mrs. Shaw's Receipt Book and Housekeeper's Assistant (page 61)

The Date/Year and Region: 1878, Portland, Maine

How Did You Make It: I did this one on a quarter scale (still cooking for one, and wasn't sure I'd like it).

I sliced half a cucumber and set the pieces to soak in white vinegar with salt. I forgot about it, so it ended up soaking for 8 hours rather than 1 hour. Fries the slices in ~1 Tbsp butter, added 1 Tbsp flour, then 1/2 cup broth; turned down the heat from medium to low, then added the yolk of 1 egg, and 1/8 tsp each of sugar, salt, and pepper, along with ~ 1/4 tsp of fresh parsley, then brought the mixture back up to a boil.

Time to Complete: Less cucumber curing time, about 15 minutes.

Total Cost: All items on hand, so unsure.

How Successful Was It?: Not successful. It tastes like vinegar. Hopefully this was just because the cucumber soaked too long, but...vinegar. It didn't even have even enough salt (or any dill) to make a nice pickle flavor. The sauce worked texture-wise (I had worried about the egg yolk), but it might have been a little bland. I honestly couldn't tell that for certain, because the vinegar-cucumber taste so predominated. I couldn't even decide if the combination of 'hot + cucumber' was too unusual for my tastes, because of the overwhelming vinegar.

The cucumber pieces got very soft as they cooked, so if I try making this again, I'll need to remember to be very gentle with stirring and plating the cucumbers. 

How Accurate Is It?: I'm still not entirely sure that the egg yolk was meant to be raw rather than boiled and crushed (as I've seen in a few salad dressing recipes), but by stirring it in fast while the broth was between boilings, it managed to get incorporated without leaving chunks of solid yolk in the sauce.

German-style cucumbers, 1878