Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 28,543 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: fish
Directions
Make the butter
In a bowl, combine the butter, minced parsley, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Serve
Use as a sauce by pouring it under or over the meat or fish before serving.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + parsleytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together28,543 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,197 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Forms the fatty base that carries the flavours and melts into a rich sauce over hot food.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, green aroma and a clean herbal flavour to the butter.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and cuts through its fattiness.
The step that matters
Mix thoroughly until well combined. Thorough mixing spreads the parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper evenly through the butter, so each portion tastes the same and the sauce does not turn out patchy.
“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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