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 ↓
Turnip Tops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the turnip tops thoroughly and soak them in cold water for 1–2 hours.
Boil a large pot of water and add a small handful of coarse sea salt.
Cook and serve
Once the water is boiling, add the turnip tops.
Cook until tender, about 20–30 minutes, depending on freshness.
Drain in a sieve or colander and squeeze dry.
Serve with melted butter.
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
What each ingredient does
- Turnip tops
- Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, edible green when boiled.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness, coating the cooked greens for flavour at the table.
The step that matters
Squeeze the turnip tops dry after draining. Boiled greens hold a lot of water. Squeezing out the excess keeps them from tasting watery and stops the melted butter from thinning and sliding off.
“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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