Name: Salsifis Sautes
Ingredients: 1 bunch of salsify; 1 tablespoon of butter; 1 tablespoon of vinegar; 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley; 1 tablespoon of chopped mushrooms; 1 tablespoon of chopped chives; Pepper to taste; Salt to taste

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salsifis Sautes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the salsify until tender.
Cut the salsify into 1-inch lengths.

Cook and serve

In a pan, melt the butter and add the salsify, vinegar, parsley, mushrooms, and chives.
Season with pepper and salt.
Stew gently for 15 minutes and serve.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,150 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + chivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together553 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,885 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify: Forms the main body of the dish and is softened by boiling before stewing.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the pan, carrying the flavour of the other ingredients.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the mild, sweet flavour of the salsify.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vinegar, parsley, mushroom, pepper):

Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, parsley, mushroom, pepper. 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.