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Pan-fried Scallops with Quail Eggs, Served with Asparagus and Hollandaise Sauce

This recipe was cooked by amateur chefs as part of the BBC's Step Up to the Plate television programme.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and quail share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 1-2
Prep30 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Asparagus + quailtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Vinegar + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Asparagus + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. White wine + vinegartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, egg, white wine, vinegar, olive, scallop):

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, egg, white wine, vinegar, olive, scallop. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).