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 Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the parsley thoroughly and pick it clean.
Dissolve the salt in the boiling water.
Cook the parsley
Boil the parsley in the salted water for about 10 minutes.
Drain the parsley using a sieve.
Finish the sauce
Mince the parsley finely and then bruise it to a pulp.
Transfer the parsley to a sauceboat and gradually mix in the melted butter.
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
- Fresh parsley
- Provides the main herbal flavour and green colour, and bruising releases it into a smooth sauce.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Boil the parsley in the salted water for about 10 minutes.. Prolonged boiling breaks down the chlorophyll in parsley, which dulls its green colour and can make the flavour flat. Keep the boil timed so the parsley stays bright.
“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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