Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
A Salmi, or Hash of Wild Fow'l
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sauce
Carve the wild fowl neatly and remove the skin.
In a pot, boil the skin and trimmings in good broth or gravy with shallots until flavored.
Strain the broth, heat it, and thicken slightly with brown roux or browned flour.
Finish and serve
Add ½ cup port wine, lemon juice, and cayenne to taste.
Warm the carved birds in the sauce without boiling.
Serve hot with fried sippets around the dish.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,523 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together380 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,898 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wild fowl
- Provides the main meat, which is warmed gently in the sauce so it stays tender.
- Brown roux or browned flour
- Thickens the broth so the sauce clings to the carved meat.
- Port wine
- Adds depth, sweetness and fruity richness to the sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury sauce.
The step that matters
Warm the carved birds in the sauce without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and makes them dry and stringy. Gentle heat keeps the fowl tender and juicy while it absorbs the sauce's flavour.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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