Why it works: Turnip and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,100 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Turnips and Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the turnips into your desired shape.
Blanch the turnips in boiling water, then cool them.
Boil the turnips in water with coarse sea salt and a little butter.
Drain the turnips.
Make a good butter sauce and let the turnips simmer in it.
If the sauce separates, add 1 teaspoon of cold water to bring it back together.
Dish the turnips and serve.
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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Turnip + buttertop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,100 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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