Name: Lemon Sauce for Boiled Fowls
Ingredients: 1 lemon; 2-3 tablespoons gravy stock; 2 tablespoons butter; Mint Sauce (to taste)

Why it works: Lemon and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lemon Sauce for Boiled Fowls

Ingredients

1 lemon
2-3 tablespoons gravy stock
2 tablespoons butter
Mint Sauce (to taste)

Directions

Remove the rind from the lemon and slice it small, discarding the kernels.
Bruise the liver of the fowl and mix it with the gravy stock.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, then combine it with the lemon and liver mixture.
Bring to a boil and add a little mint sauce to taste.

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.

Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,998 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + minttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,559 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon: Provides the sharp acidity and fresh citrus aroma that brighten the sauce.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
Gravy stock: Supplies liquid and savoury body, thinning the sauce and carrying flavour.