Name: The Foundation. — Stocks, Gravies, and Sauces.
Ingredients: 24 lbs soup meat (half beef and veal); 6 calves' feet; 2 old hens; 3 lbs good-flavored ham; ½ lb butter

Why it works: Beef and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

The Foundation. — Stocks, Gravies, and Sauces.

Ingredients

Directions

Ensure your soup meat is very fresh and of excellent quality.
Cut up the calves' feet and examine them for freshness.
Prepare stocks, gravies, and sauces two days before the dinner if possible.
In a hot eight-quart saucepan, rub the bottom with ½ lb of butter.
Slice half the ham and place it on the butter.
Divide the soup meat into two portions: one for white stock and one for brown.

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.

Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,729 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).