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Salsify, Stewed

A dish of sliced salsify simmered in a cream and flour sauce seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salsify, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salsify

  1. Scrape and wash the salsify roots, then cut them into round slices.

  2. Boil the slices in enough water to barely cover them until tender.

  3. Remove the salsify with a slotted spoon and pour away all but ½ pint of the cooking liquid.

Make the sauce

  1. Thicken the remaining liquid with flour and butter.

  2. Stir in ½ cup of cream and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Let the sauce simmer gently for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Place the salsify in a serving dish and pour the sauce over it before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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

Salsify roots
Forms the main body of the dish and provides its earthy, starchy flavour and tender texture.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the butter.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour thicken the sauce smoothly.
Cream
Adds fat and body, making the sauce richer and silkier.

The step that matters

Thicken the liquid with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked with the butter and liquid long enough to swell and set the sauce; adding it raw or unevenly leads to lumps or a floury taste. Simmering gently afterward keeps the sauce smooth.

“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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