Why it works: Endive and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 47 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Puree Op Endives
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook the endives as directed in a previous recipe.
Chop the cooked endives finely.
In a saucepan, combine the chopped endives with a piece of butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Stir over medium heat and add 4 tablespoons of reduced Allemande or Cream sauce.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve and return it to the saucepan to warm thoroughly.
Add 1 tablespoon of half-glaze and another piece of butter, then serve.
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.
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Endive + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together47 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Endive + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together308 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the endive
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, nutmeg, cream):
- Spinachfits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Endivethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, nutmeg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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