Name: Salsify or Oyster Plant
Ingredients: salsify or oyster plant; cold water; vinegar; salt; milk; cream; butter; pepper

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salsify or Oyster Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Scrape and slice the salsify crosswise.
Place the slices in cold water with a little vinegar to prevent discoloration.
Cook in boiling salted water until tender.
Drain and pour over a mixture of milk and a little thickened cream.
Add butter, salt, and pepper, then let it boil 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,886 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).