Name: Brussels Sprouts and Beetroot
Ingredients: equal portions of whole Brussels sprouts, boiled; beetroot, cut into pieces similar in size to the sprouts; plain dressing

Why it works: Brussels sprouts and beetroot work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts and Beetroot

Ingredients

equal portions of whole Brussels sprouts, boiled
beetroot, cut into pieces similar in size to the sprouts
plain dressing

Directions

Boil the Brussels sprouts until tender.
Cut the beetroot into pieces similar in size to the sprouts.
Mix the Brussels sprouts and beetroot with plain dressing.

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.

Brussels sprouts + beetroottop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Brussels sprouts: Provide the main body of the salad, softened by boiling until tender.
Beetroot: Adds earthy sweetness and colour, and holds its shape when cut into even pieces.

“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.