Why it works: Broccoli and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,451 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Broccoli, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Strip off dead leaves and cut inside leaves level with the florets.
Cut off the stalk close to the bottom and soak the broccoli in cold salt water or vinegar water, heads down, for 30 minutes.
Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil.
Boil and serve
Place the broccoli in the boiling water with stalks upwards and keep the saucepan uncovered.
Boil gently for 10-15 minutes for small broccoli or 20-30 minutes for large broccoli.
Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon, drain well, and serve with melted butter poured over it.
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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Broccoli + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,451 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Broccoli
- Is the vegetable being cooked; its florets soften as it boils in salted water.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness to the served broccoli, carrying flavour across the mild vegetable.
The step that matters
Boil gently for the right time. Boiling too long turns broccoli dull, soft and waterlogged, while too short leaves it fibrous. Size determines the time, so check the florets are just tender.
“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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