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Spinach— Boiled and Creamed

Creamed spinach made by boiling spinach, then simmering with butter, cream, salt, and pepper, served with toast and quartered boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Spinach— Boiled and Creamed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Fill a large pan with lukewarm water and wash the spinach by dipping it up and down.

  2. Trim off the roots and place the spinach in a heated kettle over low heat until the juices start.

Cook and drain

  1. Uncover, add salt, and cook in its own juices for about 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the spinach in a colander and serve hot, chopped fine if preferred.

Make creamed spinach and serve

  1. For creamed spinach, return the drained spinach to the saucepan, add seasonings, and stir over heat until hot.

  2. Press the spinach into a mold or dish, then turn it out onto a serving dish.

  3. Garnish with toast and quartered eggs before serving.

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. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Spinach + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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 carries the flavor once its juices are cooked down.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cooked greens.
Cream
Adds moisture and body, giving the spinach a creamy texture when stirred over heat.

The step that matters

Cooking the spinach in its own juices. Spinach holds a lot of water, and cooking it over low heat in its own juices keeps it tender without drowning it. Draining it well afterward prevents a watery, diluted result when the cream is added.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, egg):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Spinachthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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