Raw Cucumbers

Pare the cucumbers neatly from end to end, and lay them in ice-water for an hour; then wipe them dry on a towel, and slice thinly. Serve plainly at table, allowing each person to season to taste with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. Or each cucumber may be cut in four pieces from end to end, and these may be served upon a long dish with cracked ice. When prepared in this way, they are dipped in salt and pepper and eaten from the fingers.

Stewed Cucumbers

Pare and quarter the cucumbers and remove the seeds. Place a table-spoonful of butter in a frying-pan, add a small onion cut in slices, and fry until brown ; then put in the cucumbers, and fry them until of a light brown. Remove them from the pan, and add to the gravy a table-spoonful of flour, mixing until smooth.

Pour in half a pint of stock or water, stirring continually, and add salt and pepper to taste. Now return the cucumbers to the pan and stew gently for twenty minutes. Serve on toasted bread.

Fried Cucumbers

Pare the vegetables, and lay them in ice-water half an hour. Cut them into lengthwise slices nearly half an inch thick, and lay them in ice-water fifteen minutes longer. Wipe each piece dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and fry to a delicate brown in lard or sweet drippings. Many declare this to be the only wholesome method of preparing cucumbers.

stuffed cucumbers. (an Entree.)

Six good-sized cucumbers.

One-half cupful of chopped veal.

Four table-spoonfuls of milk.

Three table-spoonful of bread-crumbs.

One egg.

One-half tea-spoonful of salt.

One-eighth tea-spoonful of pepper.

One-eighth tea-spoonful of thyme.

One-quarter tea-spoonful of onion juice.

One tea-spoonful of butter.

One and a-half pint of chicken or veal stock.

Pare the cucumbers lightly, cut off the ends, and cut each cucumber in two pieces crosswise. Remove the seeds with an apple corer, lay the cucumbers in slightly salted water, and set them in, a cool place. Chop the veal fine. Place the milk and bread-crumbs in a saucepan, and cook slowly ten minutes, or until a smooth paste is formed. Add to this the rest of the ingredients, and mix well with the veal. Take the cucumbers from the water, wipe them dry, and fill them with the mixture, packing it solidly. Lay them in a stew-pan, and pour over them the chicken or veal stock, or the same quantity of water if there is no stock, adding a table-spoonful of butter in case water is used. Add a bay-leaf also, and salt and pepper to taste, and let the cucumbers simmer forty-five minutes. When it is time to serve, place the cucumbers on thin strips of toast, and pour over them a sauce made of the following ingredients:

Three table-spoonfuls of butter.

One table-spoonful of flour.

One table-spoonful of lemon juice.

One cupful of veal or chicken stock.

One-half tea-spoonful of salt.

One-quarter tea-spoonful of pepper.

One slice of carrot.

One slice of onion.

One sprig of parsley.

One clove.

One bay-leaf.

A grating of nutmeg.

Simmer all these together twenty minutes, adding the lemon-juice last. Strain the sauce, pour it over the cucumbers, and serve. If there is no stock, use in its place the liquid in which the cucumbers were boiled.