Name: A Soutie of the Liver of the Turtle
Ingredients: Butter; Chopped turtle herbs; Chopped mushrooms; Liver of turtle; Turtle soup

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

A Soutie of the Liver of the Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Butter a sauté pan and sprinkle it with chopped turtle herbs and chopped mushrooms.
Cut the liver into slices and place them in the sauté pan.
Heat the pan for about two minutes, then turn the liver.
Once cooked, arrange the liver around the dish and pour a little turtle soup in the center.

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.

Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + livertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together572 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + livertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).