Why it works: Parsnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Baked Parsnips
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Scrape or pare the parsnips. If large, cut them into quarters.
Lay the parsnips on a flat baking dish and add a little water.
Dredge the parsnips with flour and coarse sea salt.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until soft and slightly browned.
Add a little butter on top just before serving.
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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Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together669 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parsnip + buttertop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,051 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Parsnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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