Name: Chicken Mayonnaise, in Shells
Ingredients: cooked chicken, minced; mayonnaise; dressed salad; tomato aspic; truffle, chopped; parsley, chopped; egg yolk, sieved; cooked ham or tongue, grated or sieved

Why it works: Tomato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,398 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Mayonnaise, in Shells

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the minced chicken with mayonnaise until well coated.
Place a small heap of dressed salad in each shell.
Cover the salad with the chicken mixture and level the surface with a knife.
Decorate the edge of each shell with shapes of tomato aspic.
Top the center with chopped truffle and parsley, or sieved egg yolk and ham or tongue.

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.

Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,031 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Truffle + hamtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together516 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Chicken + truffletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together756 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, tomato, truffle, egg, ham):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits about as well
Tarragonfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, truffle, egg, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.