Name: Stuffing for Turkey
Ingredients: ¾ Vienna loaf, crumbed very fine; ½ pound good sausage meat; ¼ pound butter; 3 eggs, well beaten; small piece of ham, grated; 12 large oysters, drained and chopped; ¼ pound fresh mushrooms, chopped; rind of 1 lemon; a few walnut meats; a few filberts; grated nutmeg, to taste; marjoram, to taste; thyme, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; black pepper, to taste

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

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.

Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,149 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together763 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, egg, ham, oyster, mushroom, walnut):

Figfits about as well
Coconutfits about as well
Lemonthe original
Grapefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, egg, ham, oyster, mushroom, walnut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Stuffing for Turkey