Name: Shad Roe with Oysters
Ingredients: shad roe; oysters; hot fat for frying; salt to taste; parsley for garnish; 1 lemon

Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

Shad Roe with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and wipe the shad roe.
Fry the shad roe in hot fat for 15 to 20 minutes, turning to cook both sides.
Season with salt to taste.
Arrange the fried shad roe on a platter.
Surround with a row of fried oysters.
Garnish with a bunch of parsley and half a lemon, cut in saw teeth.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Roe + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together58 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Roe + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together251 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Roe + parsleytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together259 recipes

Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Oyster + parsleytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,211 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).