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Parsley and Butter

A simple dish of boiled parsley served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Parsley and Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the parsley clean.

Cook and finish

  1. Tie it up and boil in water for a few minutes.

  2. Drain and chop the parsley very finely.

  3. Add the melted butter and heat until hot.

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. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsley
Forms the main body of the dish, providing its green flavour and tender texture once boiled and chopped.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the chopped parsley a smooth, moist coating.

The step that matters

Drain and chop the parsley very finely. Parsley must be well drained so excess water does not dilute the butter. Fine chopping breaks down the cell walls, giving a softer texture that absorbs the butter evenly.

“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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