Name: Vol-au-Vent of Oysters and Other Fish
Ingredients: Vol-au-Vent crust; Oysters; other fish; butter

Why it works: Oyster and fish work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 496 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Vol-au-Vent of Oysters and Other Fish

Ingredients

Vol-au-Vent crust
Oysters
other fish
butter

Directions

Order the Vol-au-Vent crust from the pastry shop on Thursday afternoon.
Prepare the ragout of oysters and fish.
Stuff the cod or pike and place it in a baking dish.
Add butter just before placing in the oven.
Wash and pick the sea-kale overnight, wrapping it in a damp napkin.
Boil the haricots and prepare the poulette sauce, then heat them together.

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.

Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together496 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).