Name: Stewed Vegetable Marrows
Ingredients: 2 medium vegetable marrows, peeled and cut into small egg-sized pieces; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon flour; 1-2 cloves garlic, for rubbing the saucepan; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Grated nutmeg, to taste; 1/2 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese; Milk, as needed

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Vegetable Marrows

Ingredients

2 medium vegetable marrows, peeled and cut into small egg-sized pieces
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon flour
1-2 cloves garlic, for rubbing the saucepan
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Grated nutmeg, to taste
1/2 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Milk, as needed

Directions

Prepare

Rub a saucepan with garlic and melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the flour and stir to combine.

Cook the marrows

Add the vegetable marrow pieces and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Toss the marrows to prevent burning, adding more butter if necessary.
After about 15 minutes, add the grated Parmesan cheese.
If the mixture looks dry, add a small amount of milk.
Simmer until the marrows are tender, then serve with or without croutons.

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.

Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Vegetable marrows: Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and tender as they simmer.
Butter: Adds richness and helps coat the marrows so they cook without sticking or burning.
Flour: Thickens the cooking juices and butter into a looser, creamy coating.
Parmesan cheese: Adds salty, savoury flavour and body to the sauce as it melts.

The step that matters

Toss the marrows to prevent burning. Marrow releases water and its sugars can scorch on direct heat over a medium pan. Frequent tossing and a little extra butter keep the pieces moving and the coating even.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, clove, pepper, nutmeg, parmesan cheese):

Cinnamonfits better
Allspicefits better
Parsleyfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, clove, pepper, nutmeg, parmesan cheese. 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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Stewed Vegetable Marrows