Name: Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients: Brussels sprouts; coarse sea salt; butter; pepper

Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

Brussels sprouts
coarse sea salt
butter
pepper

Directions

Remove any wilted leaves from the Brussels sprouts.
Soak the sprouts in cold salted water to draw out any insects.
Cook the sprouts in boiling salted water until tender but not mushy.
Season with butter, pepper, and salt, or cover with cream or Hollandaise sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Brussels sprouts + peppertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Brussels sprouts + buttertop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together20 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).