Name: Sauces for Roast Fowls
Ingredients: moderate quantity of ham; moderate quantity of veal; moderate quantity of mushrooms; sweet herbs; 1 shallot; a little allspice; 2 tablespoons butter; weak broth or water; additional flavoring from made sauces

Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sauces for Roast Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

In a pot, stew ham, veal, mushrooms, sweet herbs, shallot, allspice, and butter until browned.
Let the mixture simmer gently in weak broth or water until it forms a strong gravy.
Strain the gravy and season with additional flavoring as desired.
Serve hot in a sauce-tureen.

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.

Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together386 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,446 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,303 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, mushroom, shallot, butter, sauce):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Thymefits better
Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, mushroom, shallot, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.