Name: Croustade of Bread, Garnished with Quails Au Gratin, a LA Bourguignotte
Ingredients: Bread for croustade; Fat livers (for farce); Quails (boned and filled); Fat bacon; Butter; Coarse sea salt; Black truffle (for decoration)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Croustade of Bread, Garnished with Quails Au Gratin, a LA Bourguignotte

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cut the bread into a cup shape, about 5 inches high, with 8 fluted scallops at the top.
Fry the croustade until golden, then remove the inner crumb.
Line the cavities with a well-seasoned farce of fat livers, leaving room for the quails.
Stuff each quail with the farce, truss them, and partially braise.
Garnish the croustade with the farce and cover with thin layers of fat bacon.
Wrap the croustade with buttered paper secured with string to prevent over-browning.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about an hour before serving.
Before serving, remove the paper and bacon, absorb excess grease with a clean napkin.
Decorate each quail with a small circular fillet of fowl, simmered in butter and covered with bacon.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Liver + truffletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together395 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Quail + truffletop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together91 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Bread + truffletop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together531 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).