Why it works: Broccoli and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,451 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Broccoli, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Strip off the dead leaves from the broccoli and cut the inside leaves level with the flower.
Cut off the stalk close to the bottom and soak the broccoli in cold salt water or vinegar water, heads down, for about 30 minutes.
Boil and serve
Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil and add the broccoli with the stalks facing upwards.
Boil gently uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes for small broccoli or 20 to 30 minutes for large broccoli.
Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon as soon as it's done, drain well, and serve with melted butter poured over it.
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.
-
Broccoli + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,451 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Broccoli
- Is the vegetable cooked and served; its florets soften in the boiling water.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and fat to the mild, boiled flavour of the broccoli.
The step that matters
Remove the broccoli as soon as it's done. Broccoli keeps cooking from residual heat after it leaves the water. Leaving it in too long softens the florets and dulls the bright green colour, while removing it promptly keeps it tender-crisp.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.