Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓
Boiled Salsify
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and scrape the salsify.
Cut it into pieces about 1 inch long.
Boil the salsify until tender but not broken.
Make the dressing and serve
In a saucepan, combine the cream or milk, flour, butter, salt, and pepper.
Boil the dressing and pour it over the salsify.
Serve hot.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter 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
- Is the main vegetable; cooking until tender gives it a soft, yielding bite.
- Cream or milk
- Forms the liquid base of the dressing, giving it richness and a smooth body.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the dressing as it boils, giving it a smooth, coating consistency.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the dressing.
The step that matters
Boil the dressing and pour it over the salsify. Flour thickens only when it is brought to a boil in the liquid and its starch swells. Stopping early leaves a thin, floury sauce that will not cling to the salsify.
“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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