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Small Shell Fish Salads

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Small Shell Fish Salads

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare each type of shellfish properly.

  2. Dress the shellfish high in a dish or over parsley.

  3. Garnish with jelly or a salmagundi.

  4. Serve with oil, vinegar, mace, and pepper on the side.

  5. Optionally, serve on fried sippets or in crustades.

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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Clam + shrimptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together160 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Oyster + shrimptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together531 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Oyster + clamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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 (oyster, clam, shrimp, parsley, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, clam, shrimp, parsley, vinegar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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