Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Turtle or Terrapin Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Parboil the turtle or terrapin meat until partially cooked.
Mince the meat finely.
Season the minced meat with cayenne pepper, black pepper, coarse sea salt, spices, and lemon juice.
Add chopped hard-boiled eggs and champagne.
Stew the mixture until thoroughly cooked.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + champagnetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + champagnetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together280 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
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