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Stewed Salsify or Oyster Plant

A stew of sliced salsify roots cooked with butter, pepper, sweet cream, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Stewed Salsify or Oyster Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the salsify roots and scrape off the skins, placing them in cold water to prevent darkening.

  2. Cut the roots into thin slices and place them in fresh water to cover.

Stew and finish

  1. Add a little coarse sea salt and stew in a covered pot for about 1 hour until tender.

  2. Pour off some water, then add a small lump of butter, black pepper, and sweet cream.

  3. Stir in 1 teaspoon of flour to form a paste, then boil briefly and serve hot.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 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).

Butter and flour 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
Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and tender during the long stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the stewed roots a smooth, rounded flavour.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, forming a creamy sauce with the stewing liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cream and liquid into a paste-like sauce that coats the roots.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour to form a paste. Flour must be stirred in smoothly and then boiled briefly so its starch cooks and thickens the sauce without leaving raw, floury taste or lumps.

“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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