Name: Salmis of Snipe or Woodcock
Ingredients: 1 eschalot, chopped; Lemon peel, 1 slice; Salt and pepper, to taste; 1 wine glassful white wine or Marsala; Fried bread, for serving; Lemon slices, for serving

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 add it to a stew pan with lemon peel, salt, and pepper.
Pour in the white wine or Marsala, mixing well with a wooden spoon.
Let it boil uncovered for 30 minutes until the sauce reduces by half.
Strain the sauce and keep it warm.
Serve the fried bread under the birds, pour the sauce over, and serve with lemon slices on the side.

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 + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,066 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,445 recipes

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