Radziwiłł-style boiled cucumbers
This recipe comes from a 17th-century culinary manuscript that belongs to the archival legacy of the Radziwiłł family, one of the most prominent noble and ducal houses of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Here is the historical context behind this specific text:
- The Source Document: It is an authentic record from a magnate's courtly kitchen ledger (most likely from the Radziwiłł estates in Nesvizh or Kėdainiai). In the 17th century, wealthy noble houses maintained their own private manuscript recipe books, where court chefs recorded dishes for grand banquets.
- The Context of "Culinary Illusion":The instruction to make the sauce taste "in the manner of artichokes" (*sapor na kszałt do karczochów*) is the key to understanding this dish. In 17th-century Poland, artichokes were an incredibly luxurious, exotic vegetable imported from Western Europe and grown only in the private botanical gardens of the wealthiest elite. This recipe represents a highly popular trend in old Polish cuisine known as culinary illusion. Chefs would take a common, widely available local vegetable—in this case, fresh cucumbers—and use elaborate stuffings, spices (like imported ginger and mace), and specific cooking techniques to alter its texture and flavor, making it mimic a rare, expensive delicacy.
The recipe (I tried to translate it using historical English, but since I'm not a native speaker I used some help of AI with that so please take it easy):
Take fresh Cowcumbers and pill them, and let them be parboyled; then slit them in the length, and take out the pith. Then take grated white bread, and mingle it with the yolkes of raw egges, a little butter, ginger, pepper, mace, and salt as much as is sufficient, and fill the Cowcumbers therewith. Then binde them fast with thred and boyle them; then make a sawce after the manner of Artichocks, and take away the thred, and let them boyle a little space therein.
It was originally written in cookbook written for house Radziwiłł titled Moda bardzo dobra smażenia różnych konfektów i innych słodkości, a także przyrządzania wszelakich potraw, pieczenia chleba i inne sekrety gospodarskie i kuchenne”, english "A very good Way of boiling all Sorts of Confections and other Sweet-meats, as also of dressing all Manner of Dishes, baking of Bread, and other Secrets of House-wifery and the Kitchen." Those titles were wild not gonna lie.
Oryginal recipe is in time period polish:
Obłupić ogórki świeże i na pół uwarzyć, potym rozkrajać wzdłuż, wyjąć środki i natrzeć chleba białego, dać żółtek od jaja, trochę masła i imbieru, pieprzu, kwiatu, soli co trzeba i nałożyć to do tych ogórków. Potym nicią związać i uwarzyć, i uczynić sapor na kształt do karczochów, i odjąć te nici, i z tem trochę przywarzyć.