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Vegetable Roast

A baked casserole of browned flour, water, and cooked vegetables, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vegetable Roast

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

  1. Mix olive oil and flour in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until well browned.

  2. Add water and stir until smooth and well cooked.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in salt, pepper, chopped vegetables, and grated onion until the mixture is the consistency of stiff mush.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread two-thirds of the mixture in a baking dish, covering the bottom and halfway up the sides.

  2. Add a layer of bread crumbs, then cover with the remaining mixture, sealing the edges.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes, basting with a mixture of browned flour, water, and butter.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Wheat + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat flour
Browned with the oil, it forms the thick base that sets the mixture into a stiff mush.
Olive oil
Carries the flour as it browns, adding fat and a toasted, nutty flavour.
Water
Hydrates the browned flour so it cooks smooth and thickens into a spreadable mass.
Parsnips
Cooked and mashed into the base, they add body, moisture and natural sweetness.
Carrot
Cooked and chopped into the base, it adds moisture, colour and gentle sweetness.

The step that matters

Browning the flour and oil. Stirring the flour in oil over medium heat until well browned develops nutty flavour and colour. Stopping early leaves a raw, pasty taste, while scorching gives a bitter one.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, flour, olive, carrot, parsnip, potato, pepper):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, olive, carrot, parsnip, potato, pepper. 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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