Chef Elsa
Dillfisolen
Tender Austrian green beans folded into a silky, dill-bright cream sauce built on a proper Einbrenn. The Gasthaus side dish that quietly steals the whole meal.
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Rahmgurken
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Warm creamed cucumbers in a silky dill and sour cream sauce with a bright vinegar finish, the Austrian side dish that changes how you think about cucumbers forever.
Side Dishes
Austrian
Weeknight
25 min
Active Time
20 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 servings
The first time I served Rahmgurken to a friend from London, she looked at the plate and said, 'You cooked the cucumbers?' As if I'd done something reckless. I told her to taste it. She went quiet for a moment, then asked for the recipe. That's how it goes with Rahmgurken. Nobody believes in it until they try it.
In my grandmother Eva's kitchen in Kent, warm cucumber was never strange. Gretel always said that the Austrian kitchen doesn't waste good vegetables on salads alone. Cucumbers have a delicate sweetness that comes alive when you cook them gently in butter and let them braise in cream. Raw, they're refreshing. Warm, they become something else entirely: tender, almost silky, with a flavor that sits somewhere between melon and summer herbs.
The technique is simple and the ingredients are plain. You peel and salt the cucumbers to draw out excess water, then braise them in a sauce built from butter, a whisper of flour, sour cream, and good white wine vinegar. Fresh dill goes in at the end so it stays bright. The vinegar matters more than you think. Without it, the dish is flat. With it, everything lifts.
Rahmgurken belongs next to Tafelspitz or a plain roasted chicken or a piece of poached fish. It's a Beilage, a side dish, and like all good Austrian Beilagen, it doesn't shout. It sits on the plate quietly and then steals the whole meal. This is good Austrian home cooking at its most honest.
Cooked cucumber dishes appear throughout Central European cookery, a tradition rooted in the practical reality that field cucumbers were abundant in summer and needed to be used quickly before they turned bitter or soft. Austrian Rahmgurken belongs to the broader family of Gemüsebeilagen, the vegetable side dishes that form the backbone of Hausmannskost (home cooking). Gretel Beer included creamed cucumber variations in her writing as one of the preparations that distinguished Austrian vegetable cookery from its neighbors: the combination of sour cream, vinegar, and dill in a warm sauce reflects the same sweet-sour sensibility that runs through so much of the cuisine, from Krautsalat to Tafelspitz garnishes.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
cucumbers
Quantity
1 kg (about 3 large)
firm with small seeds
fine salt (for drawing moisture)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely diced
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
plain flour
Quantity
1 tablespoon
sour cream (Sauerrahm)
Quantity
150ml
beef or vegetable broth
Quantity
100ml
white wine vinegar
Quantity
2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fresh dill
Quantity
3 tablespoons
finely chopped
white pepper
Quantity
to taste
salt
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cucumbersfirm with small seeds | 1 kg (about 3 large) |
| fine salt (for drawing moisture) | 1 tablespoon |
| onionfinely diced | 1 medium |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| plain flour | 1 tablespoon |
| sour cream (Sauerrahm) | 150ml |
| beef or vegetable broth | 100ml |
| white wine vinegar | 2 tablespoons |
| granulated sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| fresh dillfinely chopped | 3 tablespoons |
| white pepper | to taste |
| salt | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide pan or shallow saucepan (26cm)
- •Colander
- •Clean kitchen towel for drying cucumbers
Instructions
- 1
Peel and salt the cucumbers
Peel the cucumbers, halve them lengthways, and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. You want firm cucumbers with small seeds. If the seeds are large and watery, the cucumber is too mature for this dish and will turn to mush. Slice the halves into crescents about half a centimeter thick. Toss them in a colander with a tablespoon of fine salt and let them sit for fifteen to twenty minutes over a bowl. You'll be surprised how much water comes out. This is the most important step in the whole recipe. If you skip the salting, the cucumbers release all that liquid into your sauce and drown it.
Choose cucumbers that feel heavy and firm when you pick them up. Soft spots or yellowing skin mean they're past their best. European-style field cucumbers work beautifully here. If you can only find English hothouse cucumbers, they'll work, but give them the full twenty minutes of salting. - 2
Rinse and dry
After the cucumbers have released their water, rinse them briefly under cold water to remove excess salt. Squeeze them gently in a clean kitchen towel, pressing out as much liquid as you can without crushing them. They should feel slightly wilted and pliable now, not crisp. That's exactly right. They've given up the water that would have ruined the sauce.
- 3
Build the cream base
Melt the butter in a wide pan or shallow saucepan over medium heat. When it foams, add the diced onion and cook gently until soft and translucent, about four minutes. You don't want any color on the onion. This is a pale, delicate sauce and browned onion would push it in the wrong direction. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. This tiny amount of flour gives the sauce just enough body to coat the cucumbers without turning it heavy or gluey.
A tablespoon of flour sounds like nothing, and that's the point. You're not making a thick roux. You're giving the sauce a gentle structure so it clings to each cucumber slice instead of pooling on the plate. - 4
Add broth and sour cream
Pour in the broth and stir until smooth. Let it come to a gentle simmer, then stir in the sour cream. Reduce the heat to low. The sauce should be creamy and thin enough to pour easily. If it looks thick, add a splash more broth. Austrians use Sauerrahm for this, which has a tangier, lighter quality than French crème fraîche. Regular sour cream is the closest equivalent and works well.
- 5
Braise the cucumbers
Add the salted and dried cucumber slices to the sauce. Stir gently to coat them. Let them simmer on low heat for eight to ten minutes, stirring once or twice. The cucumbers will soften but should still have a slight resistance when you bite into one. If they've gone completely limp, you've cooked them too long. Pull them off the heat while they still have a whisper of texture.
- 6
Finish with vinegar and dill
Stir in the white wine vinegar and sugar. Taste. The vinegar should brighten everything without making the sauce sour. The sugar isn't there to sweeten, it's there to balance the acid so the cream doesn't curdle and the flavors sit in harmony. Add the chopped dill, reserving a pinch for the top. Season with white pepper and salt as needed. The dill goes in at the end because heat kills its freshness. Scatter the reserved dill over the dish and serve warm. Mahlzeit!
White wine vinegar, not apple cider, not balsamic, not lemon juice. The clean acidity of white wine vinegar is what gives Rahmgurken its distinctly Austrian character. Start with two tablespoons and adjust from there.
Chef Tips
- •Don't skip the salting and draining. I know it feels like an unnecessary step when you're in a hurry, but it's the difference between a silky sauce that holds together and a watery mess. Fifteen minutes is all it takes.
- •Rahmgurken should be served warm, not hot. Give it a minute or two off the heat before plating. The flavors settle and the sauce thickens just slightly as it cools, which makes it coat the cucumbers more beautifully.
- •This is the traditional Beilage for Tafelspitz, but it's also wonderful next to a plain roast chicken, poached fish, or even alongside a Schnitzel when you want something lighter than potato salad. At my restaurant in Salzburg, I serve it with pan-roasted trout in summer and guests always ask what the cucumber dish is.
- •Gretel always said that the balance of cream and vinegar is where the cook's taste shows. Start with the amounts in the recipe, then adjust. You want to taste the tang, but the cream should still feel gentle.
Advance Preparation
- •Cucumbers can be salted and drained up to two hours ahead. Keep them in the towel in the fridge until you're ready to cook.
- •The finished Rahmgurken can be gently reheated over low heat, but add a splash of broth to loosen the sauce and stir in fresh dill after reheating. It's best made fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 280g)
Calories
195 calories
Total Fat
14 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
6 g
Cholesterol
35 mg
Sodium
775 mg
Total Carbohydrates
17 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
8 g
Protein
3 g
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