Name: Parsnip Cakes
Ingredients: cold boiled parsnips; salt; beaten egg; breadcrumbs; oil for frying; fried parsley for serving

Why it works: Parsnip and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 484 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Parsnip Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Mash the cold boiled parsnips and season with salt.
Form the mixture into small cakes.
Dip each cake into beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.
Fry the cakes in hot oil until golden brown.
Serve hot with fried parsley.

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.

Parsnip + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsnip + eggtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).