Name: Salsify or Vegetable Oyster
Ingredients: Salsify; 1 beaten egg; Fine bread crumbs; Lard for frying; Milk; Butter; Coarse sea salt; Wheat flour; Additional eggs for batter

Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Salsify or Vegetable Oyster

Ingredients

Directions

Scrape the outside of the salsify and parboil it until tender.
Cut the salsify into slices.
Dip the slices into the beaten egg, then coat with fine bread crumbs.
Fry the coated salsify in lard until golden brown.
Alternatively, make a batter with wheat flour, milk, and eggs.
Mix the boiled salsify slices into the batter with a little salt.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot fat and cook until light brown.

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.

Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + wheattop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).