Name: Mashed Turnips
Ingredients: turnips; salt; butter; white pepper; sugar (optional)

Why it works: Butter and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mashed Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

Peel and slice the turnips into ½ inch thick pieces.
Blanch the turnips in slightly salted water until tender.
Drain the turnips in a colander and press out excess water.
Mash the turnips through a sieve.
Season with butter, salt, and white pepper.
Add a little sugar if desired.
Serve as a vegetable or use for garnishing meat dishes.

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.

Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Turnip + white peppertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together275 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Turnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,100 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,814 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Turnip + sugartop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,330 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).