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Soup

Cream of Salsify or Oyster Plant

A creamy soup made from salsify broth, milk, cream, and butter, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Salsify or Oyster Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the salsify broth and stir constantly until it forms a smooth sauce.

  3. Add 2 more cups of the broth and simmer for 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the milk and cream, and heat until boiling hot.

  2. Season with salt to taste and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the base of the sauce.
Salsify broth
Forms the main liquid and carries the vegetable flavor through the soup.
Milk
Adds liquid and mild sweetness, softening the broth's flavor.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and cream, and heat until boiling hot. Milk and cream contain proteins and sugars that can scorch on the bottom of a pan. Stirring while heating keeps the dairy from sticking and burning, and keeps the sauce smooth.

“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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