Name: Parsnips for Salt Fish
Ingredients: fresh parsnips; cream; sifted sugar; fresh butter

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 ↓

Parsnips for Salt Fish

Ingredients

fresh parsnips
cream
sifted sugar
fresh butter

Directions

Boil fresh parsnips until tender.
Rub the parsnips through a fine sieve to create a pulp.
Mix the pulp with a little cream, sifted sugar, and fresh butter.
Reduce the mixture until it thickens.
Serve the thickened pulp in a butter boat.
Arrange whole boiled parsnips around the dish, wrapped in a napkin.

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).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parsnip + sugartop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together190 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Parsnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,051 recipes

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