Name: Croustades for the a LA Reine Soup
Ingredients: ½ cup plain salad oil; ¼ cup malt vinegar; mixed pepper to taste; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a little sugar; chopped aspic for garnish; thin slices of day-old bread (about ½ a loaf); clarified butter for frying

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Croustades for the a LA Reine Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the day-old bread into small square dice, about ⅛ inch each.
Heat clarified butter in a sauté pan and fry the bread cubes until light brown, stirring with a perforated spoon for even cooking.
Remove the fried bread and drain on a sieve.
Mix the salad oil, malt vinegar, mixed pepper, salt, and sugar in a bowl and beat well.
In a serving dish, place a pile of shredded lettuce and cut-up beetroot in the center.
Arrange the scollops of trout on top, leaning them against each other.
Pour the dressing over the salad and place a pile of Tartare sauce in the center.
Sprinkle chopped aspic over the trout and keep the dish on ice until serving.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Malt + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).