Name: Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients: 1 pound Brussels sprouts; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon flour; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; 1/4 cup broth; fried croutons for garnish

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the loose hanging leaves from the Brussels sprouts.
Boil the sprouts in a saucepan of water with salt for 15 minutes.
Drain the sprouts in a sieve.

Make the sauce and serve

Melt the butter in a stewpan and add the drained sprouts.
Sauté the sprouts until they turn slightly brown.
Arrange the sprouts in a pyramid on a deep dish.
Dredge flour, pepper, and salt into the butter.
Add the broth and pour over the sprouts.
Garnish with fried croutons.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Brussels sprouts + peppertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Brussels sprouts + buttertop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together20 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brussels sprouts: Form the main body of the dish and brown lightly when sautéed.
Butter: Fats the pan and browns the sprouts while carrying flavor.
Flour: Thickens the butter and broth into a light coating sauce.
Broth: Adds moisture and savory flavor to the sauce poured over the sprouts.

The step that matters

Sauté the sprouts until they turn slightly brown. Sprouts already boiled are fully cooked, so the goal is browning. Browning comes from direct contact with hot fat and dry surfaces; overcrowding or too little heat causes steaming instead, leaving them pale and soft.