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Brussels Sprouts, Sautes

A sautéed Brussels sprouts dish with butter, tarragon vinegar, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts, Sautes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pick, wash, and boil the Brussels sprouts until tender.

  2. Drain them carefully and place in a saucepan with butter.

  3. Toss over medium heat for about 8 minutes.

  4. Add tarragon vinegar, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.

  5. Serve very 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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brussels sprouts
Provide the main body of the dish, cooked until tender and then warmed through in butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and helping the sprouts brown lightly in the pan.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the buttery sprouts and balances their richness.

The step that matters

Drain the sprouts carefully. Excess boiling water left on the sprouts dilutes the butter and makes them soggy, so they should be well drained before tossing in the saucepan.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tarragon, vinegar, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tarragon, vinegar, parsley, pepper. 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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