Name: Fricandeau with Sorrel
Ingredients: 5-6 handfuls of sorrel; 1 tablespoon butter; a little gravy; white pepper to taste; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 small lump of sugar; lemon juice or vinegar (optional)

Why it works: Sorrel and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 149 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Fricandeau with Sorrel

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the sorrel well and place it in a stewpan with butter.
Stew for 10 minutes, then rub it through a fine sieve.
Transfer the strained sorrel to a small stewpan with a little gravy, white pepper, salt, and sugar.
Bring to a gentle boil, then pour into a dish.
Place the fricandeau on top of the sorrel.

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.

Sorrel + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together149 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sorrel + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together652 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,658 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).