Why it works: Turnip and sauce work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 943 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Creamed Turnips
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and slice the turnips into ½-inch slices, then cube them.
Cook and finish
Boil a large pot of water and add the turnips, cooking until tender.
Add salt to the water when the turnips are halfway done and cook with the cover off.
Once tender, drain the water and pour the medium white sauce over the turnips.
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.
-
Turnip + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turnips
- Form the bulk of the dish; they soften as they cook, becoming tender enough to hold the sauce.
- Medium white sauce
- Adds a creamy, moist coating that makes the mild turnips rich and smooth.
The step that matters
Drain the turnips well before adding the sauce. Water left clinging to the cooked turnips thins the white sauce and dilutes its flavor and body, so the coating turns watery instead of creamy.
“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.
You might also like
Turnip Soup43 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.