Skip to main content
Main

Spinach, Boiled

A simple boiled spinach dish seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, and garnished with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Spinach, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the stalks from the spinach and wash it thoroughly. Let the grit settle.

  2. Drain the spinach.

Cook

  1. Place the spinach in a saucepan with the moisture that clings to it and add a sprinkle of salt.

  2. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes until tender.

  3. Drain the spinach and press it in a colander.

  4. Chop the spinach.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the chopped spinach to a clean, dry saucepan with butter, salt, and pepper. Stir for a few minutes.

  2. Serve the spinach in a hot dish.

  3. Garnish with croutons.

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.

  1. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Spinach + buttertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Forms the dish's body; cooking softens its leaves until tender and collapsible.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the chopped spinach for a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Pressing and draining the spinach. Spinach holds a lot of water. Pressing out the excess after boiling keeps the chopped leaves from becoming watery and diluting the butter, so the final dish stays concentrated in flavour and texture.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.

You might also like

Spinach SoupSpinach Soup50 recipesCream of SpinachCream of Spinach29 recipesCreamed Spinach SoupCreamed Spinach Soup19 recipesSpinach and EggsSpinach and Eggs8 recipes