Name: Melted Butter with Kile
Ingredients: milk; onion; celery

Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Melted Butter with Kile

Ingredients

milk
onion
celery

Directions

Substitute milk for water in the melted butter recipe.
For onion sauce, boil the onion in water, then chop it.
Add the chopped onion to the melted butter.
For celery sauce, boil the celery in water, then chop it.
Add the chopped celery to the melted butter immediately after boiling to prevent blackening.

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.

Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,418 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).