Name: Crayfish, As a Breakfast Relish
Ingredients: 1 pint crayfish; 1 ounce butter; 1 cup water; 1 tablespoon vinegar; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 slice toast; 2 tablespoons flour

Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Crayfish, As a Breakfast Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the tails from the crayfish.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, combine the crayfish bodies, butter, water, vinegar, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
Simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Thicken the mixture with flour.

Serve

Pour the mixture over a slice of toast.

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.

Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Crayfish + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Crayfish: Provides the main flavour and the protein of the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the liquid into a sauce that clings to the toast.
Vinegar: Adds a small amount of acidity that brightens the rich shellfish flavour.
Toast: Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour. Flour must be stirred in so it dissolves without lumps; it thickens as the liquid heats, so the sauce should be kept at a gentle simmer and stirred well to avoid clumping or a pasty taste.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crayfish, butter, vinegar, pepper, flour):

Tarragonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Capersfits about as well
Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crayfish, butter, vinegar, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Crayfish, As a Breakfast Relish