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Puree of Brussels Sprouts

A creamy puree made from boiled Brussels sprouts, stock, and cream, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Puree of Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. Trim the Brussels sprouts and place them in a saucepan of boiling water with a tiny piece of baking soda.

  2. Boil until tender, then drain and rub through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the stock, sieved sprouts, and cream, and heat until very hot.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, then serve.

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. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Brussels sprouts + peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Brussels sprouts + creamtop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brussels sprouts
Form the main body of the puree, supplying the flavour and bulk once rubbed smooth.
White stock
Thins the puree and adds savoury depth to the sprouts.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished puree.

The step that matters

Rub the sprouts through a fine sieve. Sieving breaks down the cooked cell walls and removes fibrous bits, giving a smooth puree. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy texture.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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