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Stewed Parsnips

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and biscuit share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Parsnips

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut large parsnips in halves or quarters lengthwise.

  2. Place slices of salt pork in the bottom of a clean iron pot and season with pepper.

  3. Layer the parsnip pieces on top of the salt pork.

  4. Add a little water to prevent burning and stew gently without stirring.

  5. When nearly done, add small cream of tartar biscuits and let them cook through.

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 + biscuittop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Cream + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, cream, biscuit):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, cream, biscuit. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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