Why it works: Spinach and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,564 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Spinach.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the spinach
Pick spinach leaves from the stems and wash them thoroughly in spring water, changing the water several times.
Shake the spinach in a dry cloth or drain it in a large sieve.
Boil salted water and add the spinach, pressing it down with a skimmer to ensure even cooking.
Cook for 8 to 10 minutes until tender, then drain and cool in fresh water.
Form the spinach into balls and press out excess moisture.
Chop the spinach finely on a clean surface.
Make the creamed spinach
Melt butter in a saucepan, add the spinach, and stir over low heat for 10 minutes until dry.
Dredge in flour and mix well, then gradually add veal gravy or cream.
Stew briskly until absorbed, then serve hot with fried sippets or puff pastry.
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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Spinach + flourtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Spinach + vealtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together261 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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
- Spinach
- Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its body and green flavour.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and carries flavour through the spinach as it cooks.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth coating that holds the spinach together.
- Veal gravy or boiling cream
- Adds liquid and richness, and is absorbed to give a creamy, moist texture.
The step that matters
Drying the spinach before adding flour and liquid. Excess water dilutes the roux-like mixture, so the flour cannot thicken properly and the liquid will not be absorbed evenly. Pressing and stirring until dry keeps the texture thick and cohesive.
Swap the spinach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, veal, sugar):
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Spinachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, veal, sugar. 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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