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 with Poached Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the spinach
Remove the stalks and brown leaves from the spinach, then wash it in several waters.
Drain the spinach and place it in a stew-pan with just enough water to prevent burning.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt and a small piece of soda or a little moist sugar.
Cook the spinach until tender, then transfer it to a colander and press out the moisture.
Rub the spinach through a wire sieve.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a stew-pan, add the flour, and cook briefly.
Stir in the spinach and moisten with a little stock or gravy.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 10 minutes.
Add the cream and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg or cayenne.
Poach and serve
Poach the eggs carefully in water with a little salt and vinegar or lemon juice.
Remove the eggs and trim them.
Serve the spinach hot, topped with the poached eggs.
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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Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,400 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Spinach + flourtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Spinach
- Forms the bulk of the dish, giving its green colour, earthy flavour and soft body.
- Butter
- Enriches the flour base and adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
- Flour
- Cooked briefly in butter, it thickens the spinach into a smooth, body-rich purée.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished spinach.
- Eggs
- Poached eggs give a soft, runny yolk that enriches the spinach when broken.
The step that matters
Pressing out the moisture after cooking the spinach. Excess water dilutes the sauce and makes it loose and watery, so the cooked spinach should be well drained and pressed before sieving and thickening.
Swap the spinach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper, butter, cream, egg):
- Spinachthe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, butter, cream, egg. 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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