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Salsify, Boiled

Boiled salsify is cooked in salted water with butter and lemon juice, then served with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Salsify, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gently scrape the salsify roots to remove the outer peel.

  2. Cut the roots into 4-inch pieces.

  3. Place the pieces in water mixed with a little lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

Boil and serve

  1. Bring the water to a boil.

  2. Add salt, butter, and lemon juice.

  3. Add the salsify pieces.

  4. Boil rapidly until tender, about 30 to 40 minutes.

  5. Check for doneness by piercing with a fork; they should be easily penetrable.

  6. Drain the salsify.

  7. Serve with a good white sauce.

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 + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify roots
Provide the main vegetable, which becomes tender and mild when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the cooked roots.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and helps prevent the cut roots from discolouring.

The step that matters

Checking for doneness after boiling. Salsify must be boiled rapidly until a fork pierces it easily; undercooked roots stay fibrous and firm, while the cooking time alone can vary with the size of the pieces.

“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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