Name: Boiled Beetroot
Ingredients: beetroot; vinegar; white sauce

Why it works: Beetroot and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,630 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Beetroot

Ingredients

beetroot
vinegar
white sauce

Directions

Place the beetroot in a pan of boiling water without washing them.
Boil for 1 to 2 hours until tender.
When done, skin and slice the beetroot.
Serve with vinegar as a pickle or with white sauce as a vegetable.

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.

Beetroot + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Vinegar + saucetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,844 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).