Name: Prawns in Aspic
Ingredients: aspic jelly; lobster coral; hard-boiled eggs; prawns; croutons of aspic jelly; lettuce

Why it works: Lobster and lettuce work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 411 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Prawns in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Pack a little slightly warmed aspic jelly in the bottom of a mould placed in ice.
Decorate with lobster coral and chopped hard-boiled eggs rubbed through a sieve.
Cover with more jelly and add prawns.
Fill the mould with jelly and let it set firmly.
Turn out onto a dish and garnish with wedge-shaped croutons of aspic jelly and finely chopped lettuce topped with prawns in their shells.

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.

Lobster + lettucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together411 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Lobster + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,301 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).