Name: Stewed Turnips with Onions
Ingredients: 12 turnips, peeled and cut into quarters or sixths; 1½ dozen small white onions, peeled; Water or broth, enough to cover; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 teaspoon mustard flour; A pinch of nutmeg

Why it works: Turnip and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 290 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Turnips with Onions

Ingredients

12 turnips, peeled and cut into quarters or sixths
1½ dozen small white onions, peeled
Water or broth, enough to cover
2 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 teaspoon mustard flour
A pinch of nutmeg

Directions

Cook the vegetables

In a saucepan, combine turnips and onions.
Add enough water or broth to cover them.
Stir in butter and salt, then cover the saucepan.
Cook until the turnips are tender, then drain the broth.

Finish and serve

Transfer the turnips and onions to a deep vegetable dish.
In a small bowl, mix butter sauce with mustard flour and nutmeg.
Pour the sauce over the turnips 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.

Turnip + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together290 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,874 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Turnip + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together377 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Turnips: Form the body of the stew and soften into a tender, mild-tasting base.
White onions: Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the cooking liquid.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the sauce.
Mustard flour: Contributes a sharp, pungent bite that balances the mild, sweet vegetables.

The step that matters

Draining the broth after cooking. Draining removes excess liquid so the sauce can cling to the vegetables instead of thinning into a watery dish. Cook until the turnips are fully tender first, so they hold their shape when moved.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, butter, mustard, flour, nutmeg):

Shallotfits better
Horseradishfits better
Arrowrootfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, butter, mustard, flour, nutmeg. 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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Stewed Turnips with Onions