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Puree of Sea-kale

A smooth puree made from boiled sea kale, butter, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Kale and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 39 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Puree of Sea-kale

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the sea kale

  1. Boil the sea kale in lightly salted water until done.

  2. Drain the sea kale on a napkin.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the sea kale with a small piece of butter.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a pinch of sugar.

  5. Toss over brisk heat for a few minutes, then moisten with white broth.

Make the puree

  1. Reduce the moisture, then add Allemande or Cream sauce.

  2. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a flat saucepan.

  3. Stir in ⅓ cup of cream to achieve the proper consistency.

  4. Add an additional piece of butter before serving.

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. Kale + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Kale + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together492 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Sea kale
Forms the main body of the puree, giving it its vegetable flavour and bulk.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, loosening the puree to the desired consistency.
Allemande or cream sauce
Adds body and richness, helping the puree hold together and taste fuller.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a fine sieve. Sieving breaks down the cooked fibres and removes any stringy or lumpy bits, which is what gives the puree its smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves a coarse, fibrous result.

Swap the kale

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, cream):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Kalethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, cream. 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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