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Stewed Salsify

A dish of cooked salsify roots simmered in butter, cream, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Salsify

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and scrape the salsify roots, placing them in cold water as you clean them.

  2. Slice the cleaned salsify and cook in fresh water until tender.

  3. Drain the water.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add butter and cream mixed with flour.

  2. Boil for about three minutes.

  3. Pour into a dish and serve.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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 roots
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when cooked and absorbing the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Cream
Provides moisture and richness, forming the body of the stewing liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture so the sauce clings to the salsify.

The step that matters

Boiling the cream and flour mixture. Flour thickens only when heated enough for its starch to swell. Boiling briefly after adding the cream and flour helps the sauce thicken and cooks out any raw floury taste, while stirring prevents lumps.

“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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