Name: Larks in Aspic
Ingredients: larks; liver forcemeat; muslin; rich stock; aspic jelly; truffles; hard-boiled egg whites; parsley

Why it works: Liver and truffle work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 395 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Larks in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Bone the required number of larks.
Fill each lark with liver forcemeat.
Wrap each lark tightly in a small piece of muslin.
Braise the larks in a rich stock and set aside to cool.
Line small oblong moulds with aspic jelly for each lark.
Decorate the bottoms and sides of the moulds with truffles and hard-boiled egg whites, then allow the jelly to set.
Unwrap the larks and place one in each mould.
Fill the moulds with aspic and place in the refrigerator to set.
Unmould the larks, dish them up, garnish with parsley, and serve.

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.

Liver + truffletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together395 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Liver + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Truffle + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,604 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Truffle + parsleytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,119 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).