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Parsnips for Salt Fish

A creamy parsnip pulp served with boiled parsnips, used as a side for salt fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Parsnips for Salt Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Boil the fresh parsnips until tender.

  2. Rub the cooked parsnips through a fine sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the parsnip pulp with cream, sifted sugar, and fresh butter.

  2. Reduce the mixture until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve the thickened pulp in a butter boat.

  2. Arrange whole boiled parsnips around the dish, wrapped in a napkin.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Parsnip + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Parsnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,051 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh parsnips
Provide the main body and earthy sweet flavour of the pulp.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the pulp a smooth, silky texture.
Sifted sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the earthy flavour of the parsnips.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and flavour, helping the pulp become smooth and glossy.

The step that matters

Reduce the mixture until it thickens. Reducing drives off water through evaporation, concentrating the flavour and thickening the pulp. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking can scorch the cream and sugar.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, butter. 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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