Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Nasturtium Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare 1 cup of drawn butter.
Add ½ cup of pickled nasturtiums to the butter.
Season with salt and pepper.
Let the mixture simmer gently.
Serve warm.
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 + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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 that carries the flavour of the sauce.
- Pickled nasturtiums
- Add a sharp, tangy acidity and peppery flavour to the butter.
The step that matters
Let the mixture simmer gently. Butter can separate or scorch if it boils hard. A gentle simmer keeps the emulsion smooth and the milk solids from browning too far.
“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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