Name: Crayfish Broth, for Purifying the Blood
Ingredients: 2 pounds lean white veal; 3 dozen crayfish; 1 handful green chervil; 3 pints cold spring water; a little coarse sea salt

Why it works: Crayfish and chervil work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Crayfish Broth, for Purifying the Blood

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the veal into small pieces and pound it in a mortar.
Add the crayfish and chervil, and pound them together until bruised.
Transfer the mixture to a stewpan and pour in the cold spring water.
Add a little coarse sea salt and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer gently for 1 hour.
Strain the broth through a napkin for use.

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.

Crayfish + cherviltop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Veal + crayfishtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together47 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Veal + cherviltop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together131 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).