Name: Parsnip Cakes
Ingredients: parsnips; salt; butter; pepper; flour

Why it works: Parsnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash the parsnips and cook them in boiling salted water for 45 minutes.
Drain and plunge the parsnips into cold water to easily remove the skins.

Shape the cakes

Mash the parsnips and season with butter, salt, and pepper.
Shape the mixture into small, flat, round cakes.

Cook

Roll the cakes in flour and sauté them in butter until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together669 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,109 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Parsnips: Provide the main body and sweet, earthy flavor of the cakes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
Flour: Coats the cakes so they develop a crisp, golden surface when sautéed.

The step that matters

Sautéing the coated cakes until golden brown. Flour and butter brown through the Maillard reaction and caramelization at moderate heat. Too little heat leaves the cakes pale and soft, while too much burns the butter and flour before the centers warm through.