Why it works: Mustard and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓
Salmi
Ingredients
Directions
Squeeze the juice of 4 lemons over the liver.
Grate the rind of 1 lemon over the juice.
Season the limbs of the birds with salt, pepper, Jamaica pepper, mace, and allspice.
Mix 2 teaspoons of French mustard with a glass of Tarragon vinegar and Chablis.
Place the dish over a small furnace with lighted charcoal.
Continuously move the meat with a spoon and fork to saturate it with the sauce.
When the sauce nears boiling, pour 1 tablespoon of Provence oil over the salmi.
Remove from heat and stir briefly before serving.
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.
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Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together901 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,137 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,928 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Allspice + tarragontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together127 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, pepper, allspice, mustard, tarragon, vinegar, sherry):
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, pepper, allspice, mustard, tarragon, vinegar, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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