Name: Mock Caper Sauce
Ingredients: ½ pint melted butter; 2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar; pickled green peas; French beans; gherkins; nasturtiums

Why it works: Peas and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 949 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Mock Caper Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the pickled green peas, French beans, gherkins, or nasturtiums into very small pieces.
Add them to the melted butter along with the lemon juice or vinegar.
Stir well and serve.

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.

Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together949 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Lemon + peastop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,005 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + beanstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,474 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).