Name: Tripe Stewed in the Italian Fashion
Ingredients: 3 ounces good butter; 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 to 3 tablespoons parsley, minced; previously boiled tripe, cut into strips; ¼ pound Parmesan cheese, finely grated; milk and water (from boiling tripe) if needed

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Tripe Stewed in the Italian Fashion

Ingredients

3 ounces good butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons parsley, minced
previously boiled tripe, cut into strips
¼ pound Parmesan cheese, finely grated
milk and water (from boiling tripe) if needed

Directions

Melt the butter in a stew-pan.
Gently stew the chopped onion in the melted butter.
Add the minced parsley and the tripe to the stew-pan.
Dust in the grated Parmesan cheese until the sauce thickens.
If more sauce is needed, add a little of the milk and water from boiling the tripe.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Tripe: Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender as it simmers in the sauce.
Parmesan cheese: Melts into the butter and thickens the sauce while adding savory, salty flavor.
Butter: Provides fat and a rich base for stewing the onion and carrying the other flavors.
Onion: Softens in the butter to add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stew.

The step that matters

Dust in the grated Parmesan cheese until the sauce thickens. Cheese added too quickly or over high heat can clump or turn grainy instead of blending smoothly. Adding it gradually over gentle heat lets the proteins melt evenly and the sauce thicken without separating.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, parmesan cheese, milk):

Garlicfits better
Celeryfits about as well
Thymefits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, parmesan cheese, milk. 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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Tripe Stewed in the Italian Fashion