Name: Red Herrings
Ingredients: red herrings; hot beer; butter; pepper

Why it works: Beer and butter work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 680 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Red Herrings

Ingredients

red herrings
hot beer
butter
pepper

Directions

Plainly broil the red herrings.
Pour hot beer over them, then let it cool.
Drain and wipe the herrings dry.
Heat the herrings thoroughly.
Rub a little butter over them and sprinkle with pepper.

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.

Beer + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together680 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Beer + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together940 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).