Name: Chickens with Lemon Sauce
Ingredients: 2 chickens; bacon (for barding); lemon sauce; scalded tarragon leaves (for garnish)

Why it works: Lemon and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chickens with Lemon Sauce

Ingredients

2 chickens
bacon (for barding)
lemon sauce
scalded tarragon leaves (for garnish)

Directions

Boil the chickens until they are white or braise them with bacon over them.
Once cooked, wipe the chickens dry.
Pour the lemon sauce over the chickens or place it around them.
Garnish the breast of the chickens with scalded tarragon leaves as desired.

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.

Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Chicken + tarragontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together619 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,092 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sauce + tarragontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together566 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).