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Table for Boiling Vegetables

A table of boiling instructions for various vegetables and macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 28 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Table for Boiling Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cover potatoes with boiling water and add ½ tablespoon coarse sea salt.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  3. Cover asparagus with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  4. Boil for 5 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  5. Cover cauliflower with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  6. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  7. Cover corn with boiling water and add ½ tablespoon coarse sea salt.

  8. Boil for 5 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  9. Cover carrots with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  10. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 1 hour or longer.

  11. Cover beets with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  12. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  13. Cover cabbage with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  14. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 3 hours or longer.

  15. Cover turnips with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  16. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  17. Cover parsnips with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  18. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  19. Cover sweet potatoes with boiling water and add ½ tablespoon coarse sea salt.

  20. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 3 hours or longer.

  21. Cover spinach with boiling water and add 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt.

  22. Boil for 5 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 1 hour or longer.

  23. Bring 2 quarts of boiling water to a boil, add ½ pound macaroni and ½ tablespoon coarse sea salt.

  24. Boil for 10 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 2 hours or longer.

  25. Cover onions with boiling water and add ½ tablespoon coarse sea salt.

  26. Boil for 5 minutes, then leave in a cooker for 3 to 4 hours.

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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Cauliflower + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Asparagus + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, cauliflower, corn, carrot, cabbage, turnip, parsnip):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, cauliflower, corn, carrot, cabbage, turnip, parsnip. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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