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
Boil the parsley for 4 to 5 minutes less than you would for fennel.
Thoroughly press the water from the parsley.
Mix the minced parsley with the melted butter or white sauce.
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
- Supplies the fresh, green herbal flavour and aroma that define the sauce.
- Melted butter or white sauce
- Carries the parsley flavour and adds richness and a smooth, fatty texture.
The step that matters
Thoroughly press the water from the parsley. Water left in the parsley would dilute the butter or white sauce, making it thin and prone to separating, and it would dull the flavour.
“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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