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Stewed Salsify

A stew of sliced salsify cooked in milk with butter, cracker crumbs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Salsify

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salsify

  1. Scrape the salsify and cut it into 1‑inch lengths, dropping them into cold water.

  2. Boil the salsify in salted water until tender, then drain.

Stew and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the drained salsify with 1 cup of hot milk and simmer for 5 minutes.

  2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and 3 tablespoons of cracker crumbs, along with salt and pepper to taste, then stew for 3 more minutes.

  3. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify
Forms the main body of the dish and gives its tender, mild vegetable texture.
Milk
Creates the creamy, stewed liquid that coats the salsify.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the stew.
Cracker crumbs
Thickens the milk slightly so the stew becomes creamier and holds together.

The step that matters

Simmering the salsify in milk. Hot milk can scorch or boil over if left unattended, and gentle simmering keeps the milk smooth while the salsify absorbs its flavour. Adding the crumbs after simmering lets them thicken evenly instead of clumping.

“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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