Name: Spinach a LA Francais
Ingredients: ½ peck spinach; ½ pound butter; 2 tablespoons sugar

Why it works: Butter and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spinach a LA Francais

Ingredients

½ peck spinach
½ pound butter
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

Prepare the spinach

Clean and boil the spinach until tender, then drain.
Chop the spinach finely.

Cook

In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar together.
Stir in the chopped spinach and cook for 10 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Spinach + buttertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,583 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Spinach + sugartop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,033 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Spinach: Forms the bulk of the dish and turns tender as it is boiled and then cooked down.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and carries flavor through the spinach.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to the buttery spinach.