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Salsifis Au Gratin

A baked dish of boiled salsify with butter, milk, salt, cayenne, topped with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salsifis Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the salsify

  1. Press the boiled salsify through a colander.

Make the mixture

  1. In a pan, combine the salsify, 2 ounces of butter, salt, milk, and cayenne.

  2. Stir over medium heat until the butter melts.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a fire-proof baking dish.

  2. Place the dish in a pan of hot water.

  3. Top with fine bread crumbs and dot with remaining butter.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes until browned.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify
Forms the bulk of the gratin, giving it a soft, purée-like body and mild flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the topping brown in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the purée so it stays creamy when baked.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft salsify beneath.

The step that matters

Place the dish in a pan of hot water. A water bath surrounds the dish with gentle, even heat, so the custard-like mixture warms slowly and does not set unevenly or dry out at the edges.

“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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