Name: Mayonnaise of Fowls or Fish
Ingredients: Lettuce; Aromatic herbs; Fish fillets or meat fillets; Plain salad sauce without eggs; Mayonnaise

Why it works: Lettuce and fish work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 196 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Mayonnaise of Fowls or Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and remove the stones from the olives if using whole ones.
Wash the anchovies thoroughly and fillet them.
Cut fish and meat into neat fillets, removing any browned parts.
Dress the lettuce and herbs with a plain salad sauce without eggs.
Soak the fish or meat fillets in a similar sauce for about an hour.
Arrange the lettuce and fillets neatly on a dish.
Cover the salad with a well-made mayonnaise.

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.

Lettuce + fishtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together196 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lettuce + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,019 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,487 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,782 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lettuce + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,301 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).