Why it works: Butter and parsley 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 ↓
Parsley Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Wash, pick, and chop the parsley finely.
Mix the chopped parsley with the melted butter.
Boil the mixture for a few minutes.
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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Butter + parsleytop 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
- Butter
- Melts to carry the parsley flavour and give the sauce a rich, smooth body.
- Parsley
- Provides the fresh, green flavour and aroma that defines the sauce.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for a few minutes. Boiling the butter and parsley together for too short a time leaves the sauce raw-tasting, while too long can cause the butter to separate and turn greasy. Watching the mixture closely keeps it smooth and well flavoured.
“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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