Name: Duck Pie
Ingredients: meat from 2 roast ducks; tarragon vinegar; olive oil

Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Duck Pie

Ingredients

meat from 2 roast ducks
tarragon vinegar
olive oil

Directions

Slice the meat thinly from the roast ducks.
Steep the sliced meat in a mixture of tarragon vinegar and olive oil for one hour.

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.

Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Tarragon + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,323 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Meat + olivetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,485 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + tarragontop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together184 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).