Chef Joost
Amsterdamse Ossenworst
The name means ox sausage, but the real story is Amsterdam itself: cattle trade, Jewish butchers, VOC spices, and raw beef sliced thin with onion.
Culinary Explorer
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Komkommer Schuitjes
Created by
Little cucumber boats on the Dutch birthday table, carrying ham-and-egg salad through the heavy weather of cheese cubes, bitterballen, and aunties asking if you’ve grown.
Appetizers & Snacks
Dutch
Birthday
Potluck
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
10 min cook•45 min total
Yield24 cucumber boats
Every Dutch birthday table has its own geography. There is the circle of chairs, the koffie with cake, the plate of kaasblokjes (cheese cubes), the bowl of zoute sticks, the inevitable bitterballen arriving too hot for human dignity, and somewhere in that landscape a cool green fleet of komkommer schuitjes. Small boats. The name already tells you the method, for a schuitje is a little schuit, a flat-bottomed boat of the sort a watery country understands without explanation.
But let me tell you a secret: this is not a grand old dish from a guildhall banquet. It is the clever domestic cookery of the hapjesschaal, the snack platter, where a host must feed many hands without leaving the room every five minutes. Cucumber gives coldness and crunch, the egg gives softness, the ham gives salt, and mayonnaise binds the whole matter with the calm authority of a Dutch aunt who has seen every birthday since 1968.
The trick is not technique. Hou het altijd simpel. Salt the cucumber lightly and dry it well, because a cucumber is mostly water wearing a green jacket, and if you ignore that, your boats will weep across the plate before the guests have taken off their coats. Make the salad creamy but not loose, fill just before serving if you can, and let the schuitjes do what they were invented to do: carry a small, honest bite across a crowded table.
Komkommer schuitjes belong to the twentieth-century Dutch tradition of koude hapjes, cold party snacks served on birthday and borrel platters alongside cheese cubes, devilled eggs, pickles, and fried bites. Filled cucumbers became especially practical after domestic refrigeration and supermarket mayonnaise made make-ahead salads reliable for home entertaining. Their shape also suits Dutch naming habits: schuitje, little boat, turns a simple hollowed cucumber into a snack that feels made for a country of canals, ditches, and kitchen pragmatists.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
long cucumbers
Quantity
3
fine salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
large eggs
Quantity
4
cooked ham
Quantity
150g
finely diced
mayonnaise
Quantity
4 tablespoons
Greek yogurt or crème fraîche
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
shallot
Quantity
1 small
very finely minced
chives
Quantity
2 tablespoons
finely chopped
parsley
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely chopped
pickle brine or lemon juice
Quantity
1 teaspoon
freshly ground white pepper
Quantity
to taste
paprika (optional)
Quantity
a small pinch
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| long cucumbers | 3 |
| fine salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| large eggs | 4 |
| cooked hamfinely diced | 150g |
| mayonnaise | 4 tablespoons |
| Greek yogurt or crème fraîche | 1 tablespoon |
| Dijon mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| shallotvery finely minced | 1 small |
| chivesfinely chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| parsleyfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon |
| pickle brine or lemon juice | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly ground white pepper | to taste |
| paprika (optional) | a small pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •Small saucepan
- •Teaspoon for hollowing
- •Sharp knife
- •Kitchen paper
- •Serving platter
Instructions
- 1
Boil the eggs
Put the eggs in a small pan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Cook for 9 minutes, then cool them under cold running water until they are easy to handle. Peel and chop them finely. You want tender egg, not grey-ringed punishment.
- 2
Hollow the cucumbers
Trim the cucumbers and cut each one into 4 equal lengths, then halve each length from top to bottom. Use a teaspoon to scrape out the watery seed channel, making a shallow kuiltje (little hollow) down the centre of each piece. Do not carve through the skin; the boat still needs a hull.
- 3
Salt and dry
Sprinkle the hollows lightly with the fine salt and set the cucumber pieces cut-side down on kitchen paper for 15 minutes. This is the small step that saves the platter. The salt draws out surface water, the paper takes it away, and the filling stays creamy instead of sliding about like canal mud after rain.
If the cucumbers are very fresh and crisp, 15 minutes is enough. If they are watery and soft, give them 25 minutes and pat them thoroughly dry. - 4
Mix the salad
In a bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, yogurt or crème fraîche, mustard, shallot, pickle brine or lemon juice, chives, parsley, and a little white pepper. Fold in the chopped egg and diced ham. Taste before adding more salt; the ham may have done the work already. The salad should mound on a spoon, not run from it.
- 5
Fill the boats
Pat the cucumber hollows dry once more, then spoon the ham-and-egg salad into them. Fill generously but neatly, pressing it into the hollow so each schuitje can be picked up with two fingers. Dust with the smallest pinch of paprika if you like the old birthday-table look.
- 6
Chill and serve
Arrange the schuitjes on a platter and chill for 20 minutes before serving. They should be cold, crisp, and quiet beside the heavier fried snacks. Serve the same day, preferably within two hours of filling, while the cucumber still snaps cleanly under the teeth.
Chef Tips
- •Choose firm cucumbers with taut skins. A tired cucumber bends before it breaks, and that one belongs in a salad bowl, not a boatyard.
- •Dice the ham very small. These are two-bite snacks, and a large cube of ham will pull the filling out when someone takes the first bite.
- •For a lighter filling, replace half the mayonnaise with crème fraîche or thick yogurt. Do not make it too lean; the egg needs enough fat to bind properly.
- •A summer cucumber tastes best, but Dutch greenhouse cucumbers make this a year-round birthday snack. The calendar is kinder here than it is with asparagus or herring.
Advance Preparation
- •The ham-and-egg salad can be made up to 24 hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.
- •The cucumbers can be cut, hollowed, salted, dried, and refrigerated up to 4 hours ahead.
- •Fill the schuitjes no more than 2 hours before serving for the best crunch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 50g)
Calories
45 calories
Total Fat
3 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
35 mg
Sodium
160 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
3 g
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