Name: To Stew Praxmis and Crayfish
Ingredients: 1 good-sized piece of butter; 1 glass of sherry or madeira; sliced lemon for garnish; praxmis (or similar seafood); crayfish; water or meat broth; 2 blades of mace; a few whole peppercorns

Why it works: Crayfish and meat work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

To Stew Praxmis and Crayfish

Ingredients

Directions

In a stewpan, combine the seafood and butter.
Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the sherry or madeira and let it boil for another 5 minutes.
Serve garnished with sliced lemon.

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 + meattop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Butter + crayfishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Lemon + crayfishtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together162 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sherry, lemon, crayfish, meat):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sherry, lemon, crayfish, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.