Name: Brussels Sprouts a LA Maitre D'hotel
Ingredients: 1 pound Brussels sprouts; 6 tablespoons butter; Juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons; 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts a LA Maitre D'hotel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sprouts

Wash, soak, boil, and drain the Brussels sprouts.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the lemon juice, parsley, salt, and white pepper to the melted butter.
Stir well, then add the Brussels sprouts.
Shake the pan quickly over the heat until the sprouts are smoking hot.

Serve

Serve immediately.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,451 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + white peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,658 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Brussels sprouts: Form the main body of the dish and absorb the buttery lemon sauce.
Butter: Provides fat and richness, carrying the flavor of the lemon and parsley.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the buttery sauce and balances its richness.
Parsley: Adds fresh, herbal aroma and color to the sauce.

The step that matters

Shake the pan until the sprouts are smoking hot. Butter can separate or burn if overheated, so the pan should be shaken over heat just until the sprouts are hot and coated, then served right away before the sauce breaks and cools.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, lemon, parsley, white pepper):

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, parsley, white 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.

Brussels Sprouts92 recipes

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

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Brussels Sprouts a LA Maitre D'hotel