Name: Vegetable Marrow with Fine Herbs
Ingredients: 2 marrows; ½ oz. butter; 1 small shallot, peeled and finely chopped; 2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley; 2 teaspoons finely chopped tarragon; 2 teaspoons finely chopped chervil leaves; coarse sea salt (to taste); 1 slice of toasted bread

Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Vegetable Marrow with Fine Herbs

Ingredients

2 marrows
½ oz. butter
1 small shallot, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
2 teaspoons finely chopped tarragon
2 teaspoons finely chopped chervil leaves
coarse sea salt (to taste)
1 slice of toasted bread

Directions

Prepare the marrow

Peel the marrows thinly and cut them in half lengthwise; remove the seedy portion.
Bring a pan half filled with water, slightly salted, to a boil.

Cook and drain

Add the marrows and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.
Carefully remove the marrows with a slotted spoon and place them on a sieve to drain.

Serve with herb butter

Dish the marrows on a slice of toasted bread.
Melt the butter in a pan; when hot, add the shallot, parsley, tarragon, and chervil. Fry for a few seconds and pour the mixture over the marrows.

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.

Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together824 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together266 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,563 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Marrows: Provide the tender, mild main body of the dish once cooked.
Butter: Carries the herbs and shallot, adding richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Shallot: Adds a mild, sweet onion aroma when gently fried in the butter.
Tarragon: Contributes a distinct anise-like aroma that flavours the butter.
Parsley: Adds fresh, green herbal flavour and aroma to the butter.

The step that matters

Fry the herbs briefly. Frying only a few seconds keeps the parsley, tarragon and chervil fresh and bright; longer heat dulls their volatile aromas and turns them bitter or dark.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, tarragon, chervil, bread):

Capersfits better
Parsleythe original
Thymefits less well
Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, tarragon, chervil, bread. 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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White Bread80 recipes

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Vegetable Marrow with Fine Herbs