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Stewed Salsify

Stewed salsify is a dish of boiled salsify roots simmered with sugar, butter, vinegar, water, salt, pepper, and thickened with egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Salsify

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape the salsify roots and place them in acidulated water to prevent discoloration.

  2. Boil the salsify until tender, then strain off the water and cut into 1-inch pieces.

Stew and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the salsify, sugar, butter, vinegar, water, salt, and pepper, then toss over heat for a few minutes.

  2. Thicken the sauce with the egg yolk, then serve hot.

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.

  1. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salsify roots
Provide the main vegetable body that becomes tender when boiled and stewed.
Egg yolk
Thickens the sauce as it gently heats, giving it a richer, smoother body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce with the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat, as its proteins set. If the sauce gets too hot or boils, the yolk can curdle and turn grainy, so heat should stay low and the yolk should be stirred in carefully.

“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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