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Salsify or Vegetable Oyster

Salsify is a root vegetable that can be boiled, mashed, fried, or baked with butter, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salsify or Vegetable Oyster

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Scrape the salsify roots clean and cover them with cold water mixed with a little vinegar to prevent blackening.

  2. Boil the salsify in salted water until tender, about 1 hour.

  3. Drain the boiled salsify.

Make the dish

  1. Mash the boiled salsify, pick out the fibers, season with salt, and mix in butter.

  2. Serve warm.

  3. Slice the salsify.

  4. Dip the slices in batter.

  5. Fry the battered slices in hot fat.

  6. Bread crumb the slices and fry.

  7. Slice the boiled salsify.

  8. Add milk or cream and salt.

  9. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes.

  10. Thicken with rice flour.

  11. Serve hot.

  12. Mash the salsify.

  13. Moisten with milk.

  14. Add butter, salt, and pepper.

  15. Place in a baking pan.

  16. Cover with bread crumbs.

  17. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 7 to 8 minutes.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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 soft and mashable after boiling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mashed salsify a smooth, savory texture.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the mash and helping it hold together.
Rice flour
Thickens the liquid so the mixture becomes firmer and less runny.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying or baking.

The step that matters

Cover the scraped roots in acidulated water. Salsify flesh oxidises and darkens quickly once cut or peeled. A little vinegar in the cold water slows this browning and keeps the roots pale.

“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.

More salsify recipes

Stewed 41Fried 30Fritters 26Boiled 18Soup 13Stew 10 See all 28 →

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