Why it works: Spinach and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,033 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Spinach Color
Ingredients
Directions
Wash, drain, and finely chop the spinach, discarding the coarse stems.
Squeeze the chopped spinach through coarse cheesecloth to extract the liquid.
Heat the liquid gently, stirring steadily until the green pulp separates from the water.
Strain the mixture through a fine cloth over a strainer.
Rub the pulp through the cloth, then dry and pulverize it.
Mix the pulverized spinach with an equal quantity of sugar.
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.
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Spinach + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
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