Name: Salsifis En Salade or Aspic
Ingredients: salsifis; coarse sea salt; butter; lemon juice; vinegar; pepper; oil; parsley; aspic

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 ↓

Salsifis En Salade or Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Scrape the skin off the salsifis and place them in vinegar and water to prevent browning.
Boil the salsifis in salted water with a bit of butter and lemon juice for 45 minutes until tender.
Drain and cut the salsifis to fit the mould; dip each piece in aspic to adhere to the mould.
Fill the centre with a salad of small salsifis, seasoned with salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, aspic, and finely chopped parsley.
Mix well, fill the mould with aspic, and chill on ice.
To serve, wrap a cloth dipped in hot water around the mould and turn it out onto a dish.

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).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).