Name: Tripe a LA Vinaigrette
Ingredients: 1 pound pickled tripe, cut into small pieces; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 cup boiling water; 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Tripe a LA Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Place the cut tripe in an earthen dish.
In a bowl, mix the butter and flour together.
Add the boiling water and Worcestershire sauce to the butter-flour mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the mixture over the tripe.

Cook

Cook for 2 hours in a covered pot.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,078 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

Pickled tripe: Is the main ingredient, providing the body and chewy texture of the dish.
Butter and flour: Form a roux-style base that thickens the liquid and gives it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Worcestershire sauce: Adds savory, tangy depth that seasons the sauce.

“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.