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
Prepare
Prepare 1 cup of drawn butter.
Dip the bunch of parsley into boiling water for a few seconds.
Chop the parsley finely.
Finish the sauce
Stir the chopped parsley into the drawn butter a few minutes before serving.
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
- Drawn butter
- Provides the rich fat base and smooth, coating texture of the sauce.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh herbal flavour and bright green colour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Dip the parsley in boiling water for only a few seconds. A brief blanch sets the bright green colour and softens the leaves. Longer heating breaks down chlorophyll, turning the parsley dull olive and making its flavour stale.
“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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