Cucumber Cups with Smoked Salmon Mousse

English cucumbers have fewer seeds and thinner skin - no need to peel. Salting and draining prevents watery cups. Keep filled cups refrigerated until serving.

This bite-sized appetizer draws on two very old food traditions. Cucumber has been cultivated for at least 3,000 years, with origins in the foothills of the Himalayas in India, and smoking fish as a preservation method is one of humanity's most ancient food techniques — practised before recorded history and refined over millennia by fishing communities across Scandinavia, Britain, and Northern Europe. Norwegian producers like Lerøy Fossen document their cold-smoking traditions extending back over 200 years, using local elder wood to produce the mild, rounded flavour characteristic of Scandinavian smoked trout and salmon. The cream cheese component has its own specific American story: it was invented in 1872 by William A. Lawrence, a dairyman in Chester, New York, who accidentally created it by adding too much cream while attempting to make Neufchâtel. The combination of smoked salmon, cream cheese, and dill became iconic in New York through the Ashkenazi Jewish food traditions that flourished in the city throughout the 20th century — the New York bagel with lox (cured salmon), cream cheese, and dill is one of the great defining dishes of American urban food culture, and the flavour combination has never gone out of fashion. This appetizer replaces the bagel with a cucumber round — a low-carb adaptation that emerged from the health-conscious entertaining trends of the early 2000s, giving the same beloved flavour combination a lighter, more elegant vehicle.