Name: Cream of Salsify, Bechamel
Ingredients: salsify, sliced (about ¼ inch thick); rich chicken broth; thick béchamel sauce; egg yolks; sweet cream; coarse sea salt; butter; white pepper; toasted oyster crackers

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream of Salsify, Bechamel

Ingredients

Directions

Clean and slice the salsify into pieces about ¼ inch thick.
Simmer the salsify in rich chicken broth until tender.
Add an equal amount of thick béchamel sauce and mix thoroughly.
Bring the mixture slowly to a boil.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a stone jar.
Finish with a liaison of egg yolks and sweet cream.
Season with coarse sea salt, butter, and white pepper.
Serve with toasted oyster crackers on the side.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, sauce, egg, cream, butter, oyster):

Capersfits better
Nutmegfits better
Tarragonfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, sauce, egg, cream, butter, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.