Name: Onion, Turnip, or Carrot Poultices
Ingredients: 2 cups onions, turnips, or carrots; sufficient water to boil; coupe (or flour) to thicken

Why it works: Onion and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32,460 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Onion, Turnip, or Carrot Poultices

Ingredients

2 cups onions, turnips, or carrots
sufficient water to boil
coupe (or flour) to thicken

Directions

Boil the onions, turnips, or carrots until tender.
Drain and mash them into a thick paste.
Stir in enough flour to achieve a thick consistency.
Apply the mixture warm to the affected area.

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.

Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together32,460 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Green Corn Pudding64 recipes

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Onion, Turnip, or Carrot Poultices