Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Croquettes of Sturgeon
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine sturgeon and mushrooms with bechamel sauce.
Stir over heat until boiling, then add butter and season with salt.
Transfer the mixture to a dish and let it cool.
Shape the cooled mixture into croquettes.
Dip each croquette in beaten egg and breadcrumbs.
Fry in boiling oil until nicely browned.
Drain the croquettes and arrange them in a circle on a hot dish, garnishing the center with fried parsley.
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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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Sturgeon + saucetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together93 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sturgeon + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together237 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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