Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Salsify or Oyster Plant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scrape and wash the salsify.
Boil until tender.
Make the cakes
Mash and season with salt, pepper, and butter.
Form into small cakes and sprinkle with flour.
Fry
Fry each side in hot lard or butter until light brown.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Salsify
- Forms the main body of the cakes, providing bulk and a mild flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the mashed salsify and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
- Flour
- Dusted on the shaped cakes to help form a light, browned crust while frying.
The step that matters
Frying each side in hot fat. The fat must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb fat and turn greasy before they develop color. Frying each side fully lets the surface set and brown evenly.
“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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