Why it works: Shallot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,523 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Collared and Potted Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Combine walnut pickle, oil, and shallot vinegar to taste.
Thicken with browning for brown meat or flour for white meat.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Let it cool slightly before using it to simmer your hash or minced meat.
For white meats like veal or boiled chicken, use lemon juice and rind instead of ketchup, and add a blade of mace instead of allspice.
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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Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,523 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Walnut + shallottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together440 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,374 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, shallot, vinegar, meat, flour, lemon):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, shallot, vinegar, meat, flour, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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