Name: Veal Pot Pie
Ingredients: 2 pounds veal; 1 quart boiling water; 1 teaspoon salt; a dash of pepper; 2 whole cloves

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Veal Pot Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the veal and cut it into 3 pieces.
Place the veal in a kettle with 1 quart of boiling water.
Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.
Simmer gently for 2 hours.
After the first hour, add salt, pepper, and cloves.

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.

Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + clovetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).