Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Liver Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Pare the rind of the lime or sour orange thinly, avoiding the white part.
Remove the white from the lime, slice it thinly, and cut into small squares.
Add the lime squares and minced peel to prepared liver in melted butter, warming gently without boiling.
Soak the rice in milk with onion and pepper until tender, then strain through a sieve into a clean pot.
If too thick, add a little cream or milk to achieve desired consistency.
Fry diced onions until golden brown, then moisten with spinach sauce or veal gravy, adding pepper and salt.
Just before serving, mix in a spoonful of mustard.
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.
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Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,491 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lime + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together392 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lime
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, onion, pepper, butter, cream, mustard):
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Mangofits about as well
- Limethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, onion, pepper, butter, cream, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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