Name: Excellent Turnip, or Artichoke Sauce for Boiled Meat
Ingredients: 1 lb turnips or Jerusalem artichokes, peeled; 1½ oz fresh butter; 1 large teaspoon flour (or 2 teaspoons if using all milk); ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (or more to taste); 1 pint thin cream (or ½ pint cream mixed with ½ pint milk); Cayenne pepper (optional, tied in muslin)

Why it works: Turnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,874 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Excellent Turnip, or Artichoke Sauce for Boiled Meat

Ingredients

1 lb turnips or Jerusalem artichokes, peeled
1½ oz fresh butter
1 large teaspoon flour (or 2 teaspoons if using all milk)
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (or more to taste)
1 pint thin cream (or ½ pint cream mixed with ½ pint milk)
Cayenne pepper (optional, tied in muslin)

Directions

Prepare the turnips

Slice and boil the turnips or artichokes until tender.
Drain and press out the water, then pass through a sieve.

Make the sauce

In a clean saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour until smooth.
Gradually add the cream while stirring, and heat until boiling.
Mix in the turnips or artichokes and salt, and heat until very hot.

Serve

Pour the sauce over boiled meat such as mutton, veal, lamb, or poultry.

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.

Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,874 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,252 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

What each ingredient does

Turnips or jerusalem artichokes: Break down into a pulp that thickens the sauce and gives it body and flavour.
Butter: Provides fat and rich flavour, and forms the base of the roux.
Flour: Thickens the sauce with the butter, giving it a smooth, stable body.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the cream into the roux gradually. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour and butter blended, so the sauce heats smooth rather than forming lumps.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, pepper):

Spinachfits better
Leekfits better
Potatofits better
Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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Excellent Turnip, or Artichoke Sauce for Boiled Meat