Name: Broiled Squab
Ingredients: plump squabs; melted butter; thin slices of bacon; slices of toast; Maitre d'Hotel Butter; parsley sprigs

Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Broiled Squab

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Split the squabs lengthwise from the back to the breast.
Remove the entrails and clean thoroughly; wipe dry with a towel.
Spread melted butter on the squabs or cover with bacon slices.
Place the squabs in the oven for 15 minutes.
If not browned sufficiently, finish cooking under the gas flame.
Serve on slices of toast moistened with the pan drippings.
Spread each toast with Maitre d'Hotel Butter and garnish with parsley.

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 + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together48 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Squab + parsleytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14 recipes

Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).