Name: Cream of Whiting in Aspic Jelly
Ingredients: 8 zephyr moulds of cream of whiting; aspic jelly; tiny sprigs of green parsley; lobster roe; chopped lettuce; tartar sauce

Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cream of Whiting in Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make 8 zephyr moulds of cream of whiting and set aside to cool.
In a casserole or border mould, pour a little aspic jelly.
Arrange a wreath of parsley sprigs with a pinch of lobster roe between each.
Pour a few drops of jelly around to fix the parsley and let it set.
Cover the parsley with more aspic jelly and allow it to set.
Place the cream of whiting moulds at equal distances in the jelly.
Pour in enough jelly to fix the moulds and let it set, then fill to the top.
Once stiff, turn out onto a dish lined with ornamental paper and place chopped lettuce mixed with tartar sauce in the center.

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.

Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together236 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,483 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Whiting + lobstertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together73 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + lobstertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, whiting, parsley, lobster, roe, sauce):

Horseradishfits better
Shallotfits better
Mustardfits better
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, whiting, parsley, lobster, roe, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.