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Stewed Salsify

A stew of sliced salsify cooked in water, milk, butter, flour, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Salsify

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salsify

  1. Scrape the salsify.

  2. Place the scraped salsify in cold water immediately.

  3. Cut the salsify into 1-inch lengths.

  4. Cover the salsify with hot water.

Stew and thicken

  1. Stew until tender.

  2. Drain the water.

  3. Add 1 cup of cold milk.

  4. Stew for 10 minutes after boiling begins.

  5. Add a lump of butter rolled in flour.

  6. Add pepper and salt to taste.

  7. Boil once more.

Serve

  1. Pour into a deep dish.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through slow stewing.
Milk
Provides liquid and creaminess for the stewed sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter mixture into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Place the scraped salsify in cold water immediately. Salsify discolours quickly once its cut surfaces are exposed to air. Holding it in cold water right after scraping limits browning and keeps the pale colour of the finished dish.

“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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