Name: Cooked Vegetables
Ingredients: 1 quart kraut $0; two pounds sauer kraut; four pieces; one teaspoonful salt; one cup milk; one tablespoonful of flour stirred smooth in a little milk; 2 spoonfuls of the follow- ing sauce poured; a piece of but- ter is a great improvement; 1 apple 0100 fuel; six people; 3 cents; 2 lbs; six; 2 hard boiled eggs sliced; 2 hard boiled eggs 1000 cost of sauce $0; salt; pepper; parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Sauerkraut (in the method): Forms the main body of the dish and gives its sour, tangy flavour.
Apple: Adds a mild sweetness that balances the sourness of the kraut.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when stirred in and heated.
Milk: Makes the flour sauce creamy and adds mild richness.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft texture when sliced over the dish.
Butter (in the method): Adds fat and richness, which the record notes as a great improvement.

The step that matters

Reduce the water during the last half hour. Leftover liquid makes the kraut watery and dilutes its flavour, while a rapid boil can scorch the bottom of the pot. A long, slow boil with the water mostly gone keeps the kraut tender and concentrated.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sauce, egg, pepper, parsley):

Lemonfits better
Limefits better
Avocadofits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sauce, egg, pepper, parsley. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Cooked Vegetables