Name: Salmis of Snipe or Woodcock
Ingredients: 1 eschalot; 1 slice lemon peel; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 cup stock; ⅓ cup white wine or Marsala; Fried bread; 1 slice lemon

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmis of Snipe or Woodcock

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the eschalot and lemon peel.
Add salt and pepper to the mixture.
Put this mixture into a stewpan.
Pour in the stock and wine, mixing well with a wooden spoon.
Let it boil uncovered for 1 hour until the sauce reduces by half.
Strain the sauce and keep it warm.
Serve the sauce under the birds and pour over them.

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,832 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
White wine + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together827 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).