Why it works: Parsley and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Sardine Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the skins and bones from the sardines.
Make the butter
In a mortar, pound the sardines with the chopped parsley and butter until smooth.
Serve
Serve this butter spread on hot toast.
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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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sardines
- Provide the main savory, briny flavor of the butter.
- Butter
- Carries the fish and parsley, giving the spread a smooth, rich texture.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, green aroma that balances the richness of the fish and butter.
The step that matters
Pounding until smooth. Pounding breaks the sardine flesh into fine particles that blend evenly with the softened butter. Stopping too early leaves stringy fish and an uneven spread, while the butter should be soft enough to combine without melting.
“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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