Why it works: Parsnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Boil Salt Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Soak and clean the salt cod overnight in water with a little vinegar.
Boil the cod until cooked through, then flake it onto a serving dish.
Boil parsnips until tender, then pound them in a mortar.
Mix the pounded parsnips with cream and a large piece of butter rubbed with flour, then heat until combined.
Pour the parsnip mixture over the flaked cod and serve.
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.
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Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together669 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Swap the parsnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, cream, butter, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Mustardfits better
- Parsnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cream, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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