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Stewed Oyster Plant, or Salsify

A stew of sliced salsify simmered in milk and thickened with butter and flour, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Oyster Plant, or Salsify

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape the salsify roots.

  2. Cut the roots into 1-inch lengths.

  3. Place the sliced roots in cold water to prevent discoloration.

Cook

  1. Bring a pot of hot water to a boil.

  2. Add the salsify to the boiling water.

  3. Cook until the salsify is tender.

  4. Drain the cooked salsify.

Stew and season

  1. Cover the salsify with hot milk.

  2. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

  3. Thicken the mixture by adding 1 teaspoon of butter rolled in flour.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Salsify roots
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when cooked and simmered.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that the salsify simmers in, adding richness and moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with flour helps thicken the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the milk when rolled into the butter and stirred in, giving the stew body.

The step that matters

Placing the cut roots in cold water. Salsify discolours quickly once cut because its exposed flesh oxidises in air. Cold water slows this browning, keeping the roots pale and attractive before cooking.

“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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