Name: Mashed Turnips
Ingredients: turnips; water; pepper; coarse sea salt; butter

Why it works: Turnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,252 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mashed Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

Pare and quarter the turnips, then soak them in cold water for 30 minutes.
Boil the turnips in water until tender.
Drain the turnips and mash them thoroughly.
Press the mashed turnips to remove excess water.
Stir in pepper, coarse sea salt, and a generous amount of butter quickly to keep them warm.
Serve the mashed turnips piled smoothly in 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.

Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,252 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Turnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,100 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).