Why it works: Barley and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Turkeys
Ingredients
Directions
Put 12 eggs under a turkey hen.
When she is about to lay, lock her up until she lays every morning.
Feed the young turkeys curds, small pieces of green cheese, and bread soaked in milk with chopped wormwood.
Provide fresh milk and water, ensuring it does not sour.
Fatten them with sodden oats or barley for the first two weeks.
In the last two weeks, feed them rice swollen with warm milk twice a day.
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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Barley + ricetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together568 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oats + barleytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together224 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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