Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Substantial Vegetables
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Boil potatoes in their skins for a short time.
Remove from heat, peel, and cut into thin slices.
Boil potatoes, then peel and slice.
If using large potatoes, cut them into pieces.
Make the sauce
Make a thin puree of onion.
Put a small piece of butter or three tablespoonfuls of oil, three beads of garlic, the peel of a quarter lemon, and chopped parsley into a stew-pan.
Add a little grated nutmeg, pepper, and salt.
Peel small potatoes and let them stew until tender in this mixture.
Cook and serve
Place slices on a grill and grill until crisp.
Brown the potato slices.
Pour a little oil over them when served.
Pour the puree over the potatoes and serve.
Serve them with onion sauce and a little vinegar or lemon juice.
Add lemon juice 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. See the original page.
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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,090 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes (in the method)
- Form the main body of the dish and soften into tender pieces when stewed or crisp when grilled.
- Oil
- Carries flavour and helps the potato slices brown and crisp on the grill.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the garlic and herb flavours into the stew.
- Garlic
- Contributes pungent aroma that mellows as it cooks in the fat.
- Onion (in the method)
- Forms a thin puree that gives the potatoes a savoury sauce.
- Lemon juice (in the method)
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich potatoes and sauce.
The step that matters
Grilling the potato slices until crisp. Slices must be dry enough on the surface and hot enough to brown; if they are crowded or wet they steam instead of crisping, and the browning from the Maillard reaction is lost.
Flavor stand-ins for the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):
- Marjorambetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Sagebetter flavor fit
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, nutmeg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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