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Fried Parsnips

Fried parsnips are sliced parsnips coated in egg or flour and fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Parsnips

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the parsnips until tender.

  2. Scrape off the skin and cut them lengthwise into slices ¼ inch thick.

  3. Dip each slice into the beaten egg or flour.

Fry and serve

  1. In a frying pan, heat enough lard or beef dripping to cover the bottom.

  2. When hot, add the parsnips and fry until brown on both sides.

  3. Remove from the pan, drain off the grease, season with pepper, and serve.

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. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Parsnip + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Parsnip + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Provide the main body and sweet, starchy flesh that softens when boiled and browns when fried.
Egg
Forms a thin coating that helps the slices brown and hold together in the hot fat.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the slices brown and crisp in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. The fat must be hot before the slices go in. Hot fat sears the coating quickly, giving browning and crispness, while cool fat soaks in and makes the slices greasy.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, beef, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, beef, 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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