Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Bisque B'Ecrevisses
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the gut from the center fin of the crayfish tail and shell the fish, keeping the tails whole.
Pound the shells with anchovies, breadcrumbs, and butter.
Boil the mixture with some stock until well combined.
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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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Crayfish + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together343 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crayfish, butter, rice, onion, pepper, wine):
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against crayfish, butter, rice, onion, pepper, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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