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Moulded Spinach

A moulded dish of boiled spinach mixed with butter, salt, pepper, sugar, and topped with sliced hard‑boiled eggs.

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

Moulded Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Boil the spinach in salted water for 20 minutes.

  2. Drain and press hard to remove excess water.

  3. Chop the spinach finely.

Season and shape

  1. Place the chopped spinach in a saucepan.

  2. Add butter, pepper, salt, and sugar.

  3. Beat and toss until nearly dry.

  4. Press the mixture into an oblong pan or mold.

  5. Invert onto a hot dish.

  6. Top with slices of hard-boiled egg.

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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 mould and, once packed and dried, holds its shape when inverted.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the spinach.
Hard-boiled eggs
Provide a mild, creamy contrast in flavour and texture as a topping.

The step that matters

Beat and toss until nearly dry. Spinach holds a lot of water, and excess moisture makes the mould loose and soggy, so it may not hold its shape when inverted. Cooking off the water while tossing with butter helps it pack firmly.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sugar, egg. 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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