Peel two large, fine cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise, take out the seeds. Scrape out carefully the soft part - with a small spoon - into a saucepan. Peel and core a tart apple, chop fine with a small pickled gherkin, take from this a good tablespoonful for the sauce and put one side, then add the rest to the soft part of the cucumbers in the saucepan. Let it simmer until tender, then add butter the size of an egg, pepper and salt to taste, a few drops of onion juice, or the spoon used for stirring the mixture may be rubbed with garlic, three tablespoonfuls of grated bread crumbs, one egg beaten, stir all together, and remove at once from the fire. Put the cucumbers in a saucepan, cover with boiling -water and cook gently until tender - about ten or fifteen minutes; when nearly done add a tablespoonful of salt, drain from the water, when cool enough stuff them with the dressing already prepared and press into shape, brush with egg, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and a few tiny lumps of butter, place carefully in a pan and bake a delicate brown.

For the Sauce, take the tablespoonful of apple and pickle reserved from the stuffing, and add a tea-spoonful of capers, chop all together as fine as possible, make a cream sauce and add this mixture to it on the fire and heat thoroughly. Place the cucumbers carefully on a platter and pour the sauce around them.

Cucumbers Stuffed With Mushrooms

Peel two large, firm cucumbers, and cut in half lengthwise; take out the seeds. Take a quarter of a pound of fresh mushrooms, skin and stem them. Chop the mushroom flaps very fine, put them in a spider with four tablespoonfuls of melted butter and a very little water, cover and cook until tender. Remove from the fire, stir in four heaping tablespoonfuls of grated bread crumbs, salt and pepper to taste, a few drops of onion juice, and the yolk of one egg. Stuff the cucumbers with this dressing, put the halves together, fasten with wooden toothpicks or tie with string. Place in a small dish that will fit in the steamer, cover closely, and steam until tender - about three-quarters of an hour - and serve with a brown sauce made as follows:

The Sauce

Put on the skins and stems of the mushrooms in boiling water. Fry a few slices each of carrot, celery top, green pepper, onion and turnip in butter, strain the water from the mushroom stems into this and stew until all are tender, strain, add a generous tablespoonful of butter and enough flour to thicken the sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Place the cucumbers in a shallow vegetable dish, remove the strings and pour the sauce around them.