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To Stew Salsify, or Vegetable Oysters

A stew of salsify roots cooked with butter, flour, cream, and optional vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

To Stew Salsify, or Vegetable Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roots

  1. Wash the salsify roots thoroughly.

  2. Parboil the roots.

  3. Scrape off the outer skin and cut the roots into thick slices.

Cook the roots

  1. Place the slices in a stew-pan and add enough water to cover them.

  2. Add salt and pepper, then cook until tender.

  3. Pour off the water.

Finish and serve

  1. Add butter and thicken with flour.

  2. Stir in cream for added richness.

  3. Stir in vinegar for flavor, if desired.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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 roots
Form the body of the stew and become tender when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and flavor.
Flour
Starch that thickens the liquid as it heats.
Cream
Adds fat and body, making the stew richer and silkier.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that brightens the richness of the stew.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour. Flour thickens only when its starch is evenly dispersed in the butter and liquid and heated. Adding it unmixed forms lumps that stay raw-tasting and grainy, so the stew ends up uneven in texture.

“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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