Why it works: Parsley and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Parsley and Butter
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the parsley
Remove any dead leaves from the parsley and leave the stalks on each leaf.
Tie the parsley together and place it in a saucepan of fast boiling water.
Add the salt and bring it back to a boil immediately.
Boil for 2 minutes until tender.
Finish and serve
Drain the parsley using a sieve and chop it finely.
Mix the chopped parsley into melted butter and serve.
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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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Parsley
- Provides the main flavour and green colour, and becomes tender when briefly boiled.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, fatty coating that carries the parsley flavour.
The step that matters
Bring the water back to a boil quickly after adding the parsley. Parsley should cook briefly in rapidly boiling water. If the water stays cool or boils slowly, the leaves take longer to soften and can turn dull and dark. A fast return to the boil keeps the green colour bright.
“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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