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Bread

Spinach, Croustades of

Bread rings filled with spinach dressed in cream or consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Spinach, Croustades of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crostades

  1. Cut the bread into heart shapes and make slits around the edges.

  2. Fry the heart-shaped bread in butter until golden brown.

  3. Arrange the hearts in a rosette shape.

  4. Cut a round piece of bread, slit it similarly, and place it in the center of the rosette.

  5. Fry until golden brown, then remove the interior and crumb.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the hollow with spinach dressed in cream or consommé.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + spinachtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Spinach + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Butter + spinachtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the crisp, golden case that holds the filling.
Butter
Fries the bread, adding richness and browning it to a golden color.
Spinach
Provides the green filling and its earthy, slightly bitter flavor.
Cream or consommé
Dresses the spinach, adding moisture and richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying the bread until golden brown. Bread fries quickly once the butter is hot, so it can darken or burn before it crisps. Frying over moderate heat lets the starches dry and brown evenly, giving a sturdy case that holds the filling without going soggy.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, cream. 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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