Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,039 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
In a stew-pan, heat a little stock.
Thicken the stock with egg yolk, cream or milk, butter, and flour.
Add pepper, lemon juice, salt, mashed onions, and mushrooms.
Heat the trotters in the sauce and serve with enough sauce to cover them.
For an alternative, melt butter in a stew-pan, stir in flour, and add cream for whiteness.
Dilute with stock to desired consistency, boil, and add chopped parsley.
Warm the trotters in this sauce, boil again, and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together12,516 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + mushroomtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,619 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,578 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, butter, flour, pepper, lemon, mushroom):
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, butter, flour, pepper, lemon, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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