Name: Parsnips, Saute
Ingredients: parsnips; coarse sea salt; lemon juice; butter

Why it works: Parsnip and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 172 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Parsnips, Saute

Ingredients

parsnips
coarse sea salt
lemon juice
butter

Directions

Scrape the parsnips from the crown down and trim off the tops.
Cut the parsnips into pieces about three inches long, then slice them.
Wash the parsnips and steep in salt water for one hour.
Drain and boil in acidulated water until tender.
Drain in a colander and season with salt and a little lemon juice.
Sauté in butter for a few minutes without browning.
Serve in a deep vegetable dish.

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.

Parsnip + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together172 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Parsnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,051 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).