Name: Crayfish Croutes, Tartare Style
Ingredients: 6 to 8 small round dinner rolls (farthing rolls); 18 large prawns, picked; 1 large gherkin; 6 anchovy fillets; 1 hard-boiled egg (white part only); tartare sauce; mustard and cress; thin slices of aspic jelly

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Crayfish Croutes, Tartare Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rolls

Cut the rolls in half and scoop out the crumb.
Allow the crusts to dry.

Make the filling

Mince the prawns, gherkin, anchovy fillets, and hard-boiled egg in a basin.
Season the mixture with tartare sauce.

Assemble and serve

Place a little mustard and cress in each crust, then fill with the mixture.
Cover each with thin slices of aspic jelly.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,330 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Anchovy + mustardtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together590 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,210 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).