Why it works: Shallot and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Pork & Vltalienne
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the saucepan with garlic.
Melt the butter in the saucepan.
Add the minced shallots and cook until soft.
Dredge the flour over the shallots and stir.
Pour in the stock and mix well.
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 + garlictop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + garlictop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,149 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, flour):
- Capersfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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