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Salsify, Scalloped

A baked dish of boiled salsify puréed with butter and milk, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salsify, Scalloped

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the salsify

  1. Boil the salsify until tender.

  2. Wash or rub the boiled salsify through a colander.

  3. Place the salsify in a bowl set over a larger bowl filled with boiling water to keep it hot.

Season and fill

  1. Mix in a little butter and milk or cream, and season with salt, pepper, and celery salt if using.

  2. Butter scallop shells and cover them with grated bread crumbs.

  3. Fill the shells with the salsify puree and top with more grated bread crumbs and small pieces of butter.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the surface is browned, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Celery + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify
Forms the main body of the dish as a soft, smooth puree.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Milk or cream
Loosens the puree and adds moisture and a softer, creamier texture.
Grated bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned crust on the top of the dish.

The step that matters

Rub the salsify smooth. Any stringy fibres or lumps left in the puree will make the filling coarse and uneven. Rubbing it through a colander breaks down the cooked fibres into a smooth, uniform texture.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, pepper, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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