Name: Brain Fritters
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon finely chopped shallot or onion; ½ teaspoon vinegar; Salt to taste; Frying fat; Frying batter; Fried parsley for garnish

Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Brain Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the brains in saltwater, then place them in a saucepan with cold water to cover.
Add 1 teaspoon vinegar and a little salt, then boil for 5 minutes.
Let the brains cool in cold water, then drain and cut into neat pieces.
Sprinkle the pieces with oil, parsley, shallot, 1 teaspoon vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Marinate for 1 hour, turning 2 or 3 times.
Coat each piece in batter and fry in hot fat until browned, about 7 to 10 minutes.
Drain well and serve garnished with fried parsley.

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.

Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,374 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,477 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).