Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Quails
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the entrails from the quails, keeping the heart and liver.
Make a small opening in the vent to draw out the entrails carefully.
Wash the quails quickly and wipe them dry.
Tie the legs down to the rump with strong thread, letting the feet be up.
Dredge the quails with a little flour.
Baste them with butter.
Roast the quails for 15 to 20 minutes.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Quail + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together212 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together512 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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