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Boiled Broccoli

A simple boiled broccoli dish seasoned with salt and served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Broccoli and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,451 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Boiled Broccoli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strip off the outer leaves and cut the inner leaves level with the florets.

  2. Cut off the stalks near the base.

  3. Soak the broccoli heads in cold salted water (or vinegar and water) for about 45 minutes.

Boil and serve

  1. Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil.

  2. Place the broccoli in the boiling water, stalks pointing up, and keep the saucepan uncovered.

  3. Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon as soon as it is done, drain well, and serve with melted butter poured over it.

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.

  1. Broccoli + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Broccoli heads
The main vegetable; its florets and stalks cook tender in the boiling water.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the cooked broccoli for flavour and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Removing the broccoli as soon as it is done. Broccoli keeps cooking in its own residual heat and can turn soft and dull green if left in the water too long. Pulling it out promptly keeps the florets tender-crisp and bright.

“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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