Name: Goose-liver Darioles
Ingredients: aspic jelly; potted foie-gras; chopped beetroot; hard-boiled egg whites; slices of cucumber

Why it works: Beetroot and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 345 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Goose-liver Darioles

Ingredients

Directions

Put a little aspic jelly in small plain dariole moulds to coat the sides and bottom.
Fill the moulds with potted foie-gras.
Place the moulds on ice for one hour.
Turn out the dariole on glass dishes.
Garnish with chopped beetroot, hard-boiled egg whites, and slices of cucumber before serving.

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.

Beetroot + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Egg + cucumbertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,346 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Beetroot + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,243 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).