Name: Broiled Squab
Ingredients: young pigeons or squabs; pepper; coarse sea salt; butter

Why it works: Squab and butter work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 48 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Broiled Squab

Ingredients

young pigeons or squabs
pepper
coarse sea salt
butter

Directions

Cut the squabs down the back and clean them thoroughly.
Wash and dry the squabs on a clean napkin.
Prepare a bed of clear coals and heat a grill.
Grease the grill bars to prevent sticking.
Place the squabs over the fire and turn them frequently.
Avoid burning the legs and wings.
Once cooked, place them on a dish.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Baste both sides with melted butter.

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.

Squab + buttertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together48 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Squab + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).