Why it works: Spinach and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,025 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Green Mayonnaise Dressing
Ingredients
Directions
Mix enough spinach with mayonnaise sauce to achieve a bright green color.
Add a little finely chopped parsley if desired.
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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Spinach + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,025 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Sauce + spinachtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together756 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,693 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, spinach):
- Capersfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Cuminfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, spinach. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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