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Dinner of 12 to 15 Covers

A multi-course dinner menu for 12 to 15 guests, listing cold hors d'oeuvre, soup, fish, meats, desserts and fresh fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 217 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dinner of 12 to 15 Covers

serves 12 to 15 guests

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup and starters

  1. Make a soup using 1 cup of green pea puree.

  2. Prepare croquettes using poultry.

Cook the main dishes

  1. Cook cod and serve with oyster sauce.

  2. Boil potatoes and serve as a side.

  3. Glaze the ham and boil the chickens.

  4. Cook hare fillets with truffles.

  5. Grill lamb cutlets and serve.

  6. Steam asparagus and serve with Dutch sauce.

Desserts and finish

  1. Make fruit crusts and serve with madeira.

  2. Prepare Bavarian cream and top with strawberries.

  3. Serve ices and a basket of fresh fruits.

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.

  1. Potato + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Chicken + lambtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Potato + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  4. Lamb + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Potato + lambtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Green pea puree
Forms the base of the soup, giving it body, colour and a fresh vegetable flavour.
Truffles
Adds a strong earthy aroma that pairs with the hare.
Bavarian cream
Sets with gelatin into a soft, creamy, sliceable dessert.
Strawberries
Add sweetness and acidity that balance the rich cream.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, sauce, ham, chicken, truffle, lamb, asparagus):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sauce, ham, chicken, truffle, lamb, asparagus. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.