Why it works: Kale and butter work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Sea-kale, with Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the leaves from the sea-kale and wash and peel the stems carefully.
Tie the stems in bunches like asparagus.
Cook and serve
Boil the sea-kale in lightly salted water until cooked.
Drain the sea-kale and serve on a napkin or piece of toast.
Serve butter sauce or cream sauce in a separate dish.
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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Kale + buttertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together247 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sea-kale
- Is the vegetable being cooked, so its tender stems are the dish's main substance.
- Butter sauce or cream sauce
- Adds richness and fat that complements the mild, slightly bitter flavour of the cooked kale.
The step that matters
Boil the sea-kale in lightly salted water until cooked. Stems must be fully tender without overcooking, since overcooked brassica vegetables turn soft and release sulfurous odours. Stop as soon as a knife slides easily through the thickest stem.
“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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