Why it works: Meat and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
How to Form Quenelles with the Spoon, and to Poach Them
Ingredients
Directions
Fill one tablespoon with force-meat, rounding and smoothing the top with a small knife.
Ensure the force-meat rises above the spoon's edge and shapes it into a line.
Use a warm spoon to slide the quenelle into a lightly buttered sauté pan, keeping the smoothed side up.
Cover the quenelles with boiling salted water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for five minutes before draining.
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.
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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