Why it works: Turnip and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 320 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Turnip-tops
Ingredients
Directions
Boil turnip-tops in boiling water for about 20 minutes until tender.
Finely chop the boiled turnip-tops with a knife and fork.
For a smoother texture, rub through a wire sieve.
Mix in a little spinach extract for color if desired.
Serve with hard-boiled eggs if using.
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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Turnip + spinachtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together320 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Spinach + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,323 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Turnip + eggtop 36% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,077 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the spinach
The recipe marks spinach as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, egg):
- Leekfits better
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Spinachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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