Name: Fried Calamari Recipe
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds cleaned calamari, bodies cut into 1/2-inch rings and tentacles left whole; 2 cups well-shaken buttermilk; 3 cups all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons kosher salt; Canola oil, for frying; 1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,721 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fried Calamari Recipe

6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds cleaned calamari, bodies cut into 1/2-inch rings and tentacles left whole
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons kosher salt
Canola oil, for frying
1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By chow. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Canola oil + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together376 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Buttermilk + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together501 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Buttermilk + canola oiltop 23% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together142 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buttermilk, flour, canola oil):

Avocadobetter flavor fit
Coconutabout as good a flavor fit
Blueberryabout as good a flavor fit
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, flour, canola oil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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