Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Boiled Dinner
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the meat
Wash a nice piece of corned beef and place it in a dinner pot with just enough boiling water to cover it.
Boil slowly for at least four hours.
If the beets are old, add them to the pot at the same time as the meat.
Add the vegetables
Add the other vegetables in this order: turnips cut into quarters (boil about two hours); cabbage cut into quarters (boil one hour and a half); carrots and parsnips (boil three‑quarters of an hour); potatoes (boil half an hour). Boil all together until done.
Serve
When the vegetables are done, remove them into separate dishes, leaving the meat last.
Slice the carrots into a sauce pan; add half a cupful of cream or milk, a small piece of butter, salt and pepper; bring to a boil and serve hot.
When the meat and beets have been boiled, clean the other vegetables and keep them in cold water until needed.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together21,449 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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
- Corned beef (in the method)
- Provides the main savoury meat, which becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body to the sauce when heated with butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat and smooth richness to the cream sauce.
The step that matters
Boil slowly for at least four hours. A gentle simmer lets tough connective tissue in the corned beef break down slowly. A hard, rapid boil toughens the meat fibres and can make it stringy and dry.
“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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