Name: Roast Fillet of Teal with Mushrooms or Oysters
Ingredients: 1 fillet of teal; 1 dozen large oysters (or more if small); ½ cup cream; 1 tablespoon white thickening (see recipe for Blanc); ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; Butter for stewing mushrooms; Mushrooms (optional, chopped)

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Roast Fillet of Teal with Mushrooms or Oysters

Ingredients

1 fillet of teal
1 dozen large oysters (or more if small)
½ cup cream
1 tablespoon white thickening (see recipe for Blanc)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Butter for stewing mushrooms
Mushrooms (optional, chopped)

Directions

Prepare the fillet, leaving the bone in the center, and roast it as directed in the previous recipe.
Scald the oysters in their own liquor, then remove them and strain the liquor.
Combine the strained liquor with an equal amount of cream, the white thickening, salt, and cayenne pepper, then boil until thick.
Remove the meat from the fillet, cut out the bone, and leave a cavity.
Place the meat on a platter to keep warm.
Chop the veal (free from gristle) and oysters, then stir them into the sauce until it reaches a mush-like consistency.
Heat everything together and pour it into the cavity of the veal.
If using mushrooms, chop and stew them in butter as a substitute for oysters.

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.

Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Cream + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,500 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).