Name: Moscow Caviabe Toasts
Ingredients: rounds of toast (1½ inches in diameter); fresh caviar; lemon juice; finely chopped shallot; oysters (bearded); lemon (for garnish); parsley (for garnish)

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Moscow Caviabe Toasts

Ingredients

Directions

Stamp out rounds of toast about 1½ inches in diameter.
Season fresh caviar with lemon juice and finely chopped shallot.
Spread the seasoned caviar on each toast round.
Remove gills from oysters and place one in the center of each toast.
Garnish with thin slices of lemon and parsley before serving.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,523 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Caviar + oystertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together290 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).