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Spinach, with Cream

Creamed spinach made with butter, pepper, salt, and boiling cream, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Spinach, with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Boil and drain the spinach for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Press the spinach between two plates to remove moisture.

Make the creamed spinach

  1. Heat the spinach in a clean saucepan with pepper, salt, and butter.

  2. Once dry, gradually add the boiling cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

  3. Serve very hot.

  4. Gravy can be used instead of cream if desired.

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. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Spinach
Forms the bulk of the dish; pressing removes water so the sauce stays thick.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the spinach a smooth texture.
Boiling cream
Adds moisture and richness, thickening gently as it simmers with the spinach.

The step that matters

Pressing the spinach dry. Spinach holds a lot of water after boiling. If it stays wet, the added cream will thin out and the dish will turn watery instead of creamy. Pressing it well before adding cream keeps the texture thick.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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