Name: Quails
Ingredients: Stuffing (as for pigeons); Vine leaves; Bacon; Butter; Fried bread crumbs; Clear gravy; Lemon juice

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Quails

Ingredients

Directions

Stuff the crops of the quails with stuffing.
Lay a vine leaf on each quail's breast and cover with a slice of bacon.
Skewer the quails together and tie them to a spit.
When nearly done, remove the bacon and baste the quails with butter.
Cook until they are a delicate brown.
Serve garnished with fried bread crumbs and a side of clear gravy with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,445 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).