Why it works: Turnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,874 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Excellent Turnip, or Artichoke Sauce for Boiled Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Peel, slice, and boil the turnips until tender.
Drain the water and pass the turnips through a sieve.
In a clean saucepan, melt the butter.
Stir in the flour or mix them together before adding.
Shake the saucepan until the mixture boils.
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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Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,874 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turnip + buttertop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,100 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 turnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Turnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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