Why it works: Olive and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,649 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Boil 1 pint of rich milk.
Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour that has been made smooth in a little milk.
Add salt and, if preferred, 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
Serve hot.
For parsley sauce, add ½ teaspoon of finely-chopped parsley before serving.
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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Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,649 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + olivetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,828 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + olivetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,871 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rich milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it its body and creamy flavour.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the milk as it heats, turning it into a smooth sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the milk. Flour added to hot liquid can clump. Mixing it first into a little cold milk to make a smooth paste lets it disperse evenly, so the sauce thickens without lumps.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, olive):
- Jalapenofits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, olive. 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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