Name: Timbal Blanche a LA Mariniere
Ingredients: 1 pound macaroni; 1 pound firm fish (for quenelle); ragout of carp roes; crayfish tails; mushrooms; Bechamel sauce

Why it works: Roe and crayfish work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 36 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Timbal Blanche a LA Mariniere

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni as directed and shape it like a snail shell in a mold.
Line the mold with a one-inch thick quenelle of fish.
Fill the interior with a ragout of carp roes, crayfish tails, and mushrooms, sauced with Bechamel.
Finish the timbal as previously directed.

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.

Roe + crayfishtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together36 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Crayfish + saucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together195 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Roe + saucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together142 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together444 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Fish + crayfishtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together90 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).