Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Parsley Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare ½ cup of drawn butter.
Dip the bunch of parsley into boiling water for a few seconds.
Finely chop the parsley.
Finish and serve
Stir the chopped parsley into the drawn butter a few minutes before serving.
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.
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Drawn butter
- Carries the parsley flavour and gives the sauce its rich, smooth body.
- Parsley
- Supplies the fresh, green aroma and colour that defines the sauce.
The step that matters
Dipping the parsley in boiling water. A few seconds in boiling water briefly blanches the parsley, helping it keep a bright green colour. Leaving it in too long can dull the colour and soften the leaves.
“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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