Name: Pilau De Homard a LA Turque
Ingredients: lobster tails; butter; Turkish rice (prepared as per the recipe on page 383); light Spanish sauce; cayenne pepper; velouté sauce; curry powder

Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pilau De Homard a LA Turque

Ingredients

Directions

Slice the lobster tails into scallops.
Arrange them in a buttered sauté pan and heat them.
Form a crown with two layers of lobster.
Fill the center with prepared Turkish rice.
Sauce the lobster with a very light Spanish sauce and add cayenne pepper.
Prepare curry sauce by mixing curry powder into velouté sauce, reduce it, strain, and serve it separately.

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.

Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Butter and sauce 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

Lobster Sauce174 recipes

Lobster Croquettes99 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Steamed Rice48 recipes

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Pilau De Homard a LA Turque