Name: Beetroots in Butter Sauce
Ingredients: beetroots; butter; salt; pepper

Why it works: Beetroot and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,682 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beetroots in Butter Sauce

Ingredients

beetroots
butter
salt
pepper

Directions

Boil the beetroots until tender.
Peel and slice the beetroots.
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat.
Add the sliced beetroots to the pan.
Season with salt and pepper, and sauté until heated through.

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 + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,682 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beetroot + buttertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together921 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).