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Wilted Dandelions

A sautéed dandelion leaf dish with egg, cream, butter, vinegar, and bacon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Wilted Dandelions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the greens

  1. Cut the roots from the dandelions and wash the leaves thoroughly in cold water.

  2. Drain and shake the leaves dry, then cut them into small pieces.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, beat the egg until light, then add the cream and stir over low heat until thickened.

  2. Add the butter, vinegar, salt, and pepper, then pour this mixture over the dandelions.

  3. Stir over low heat for just a moment until the dandelions are wilted and tender.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with crispy bacon.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Dandelion + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together77 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

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

  4. Dandelion + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the cream into a smooth, pourable dressing as it cooks gently.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the dressing once it thickens over low heat.
Butter
Adds fat and a silky mouthfeel to the warm dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the rich dressing.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg and cream over low heat. Egg proteins set when heated, so over high heat or for too long the mixture can curdle or scramble instead of thickening smoothly. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep it creamy.

“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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