Name: Fish Boasted
Ingredients: Sturgeon; Lobster; Pike; Eels; Lampreys; Forcemeat (made with shrimps, oysters, etc.); Butter; Sauce piquante

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 ↓

Fish Boasted

Ingredients

Directions

Stuff the pike, eels, and lampreys with forcemeat.
Curl them round with their tails in their mouths and skewer securely.
Place them before the fire and baste with butter.
Serve with sauce piquante.

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).
Lobster + shrimptop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together403 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Sturgeon + oystertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Shrimp + oystertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together531 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

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