Name: Cray -fish
Ingredients: crayfish; vinegar; coarse sea salt; water; parsley

Why it works: Vinegar and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,477 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cray -fish

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the crayfish in vinegar, coarse sea salt, and water.
Once cooked, cool the crayfish.
Turn each claw to stick into the fan of the tail to create a frog-like appearance.
Serve on a bed of parsley.

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.

Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,477 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Crayfish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together159 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Crayfish + vinegartop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together66 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (whiskey, malt).