Name: Dariole of Fillets of Soles
Ingredients: 1/2 cup béchamel sauce (cold and partly set); a little coarse sea salt; a pinch of cayenne pepper; 1/3 cup live spawn (strained through a hair sieve); 1 1/2 cups fresh cream; clarified butter (for greasing); truffles (for decoration)

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Dariole of Fillets of Soles

Ingredients

1/2 cup béchamel sauce (cold and partly set)
a little coarse sea salt
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1/3 cup live spawn (strained through a hair sieve)
1 1/2 cups fresh cream
clarified butter (for greasing)
truffles (for decoration)

Directions

In a mortar, mix the béchamel sauce with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.
Add the strained live spawn and mix well with the salmon.
Gently fold in the fresh cream until well combined.
Butter a dariole mold and fill it halfway with the salmon mixture.
Fold a square piece of paper in half and place it in a pint stewpan with 1/2 cup of water.
Bring the water to a boil, then place the dariole mold in the pan to simmer gently for about 5 minutes.
Check if the dariole feels firm yet light; if too firm, add more cream as needed.
Prepare two plain molds with clarified butter, beating it until white and smooth.
Decorate the inside of the molds with thinly sliced truffles in fancy shapes.
Fill the molds with the salmon mixture evenly.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes

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Dariole of Fillets of Soles