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Stewed Salsify

A simple stew of sliced salsify cooked in water, finished with cream, butter, flour, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Salsify

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape the salsify well.

  2. Cut it into round slices.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew the slices in a pot barely covered with water until perfectly tender.

  2. Pour off all but ½ cup of the water.

  3. Add the cream.

  4. Add the butter mixed with flour.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

  6. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

  7. Serve.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it stews in a little water.
Rich cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the stewing liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and with flour it helps thicken the liquid into a sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the butter and cooking liquid so the sauce becomes smooth and coats the salsify.

The step that matters

Add the butter mixed with flour. Flour needs fat and simmering to thicken smoothly. Adding it straight to hot liquid can clump, so mixing it with butter first and simmering gently lets it cook out and thicken evenly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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