Name: For Tea
Ingredients: cold meat, chopped very fine; hard boiled eggs, chopped; 1 egg; 2 teaspoons butter; ½ cup vinegar

Why it works: Meat and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

For Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the cold meat very fine.
Chop the hard boiled eggs and mix with the meat.
In a bowl, combine 1 egg, 2 teaspoons of butter, and ½ cup of vinegar to make the dressing.
Pour the dressing over the meat and egg mixture.

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.

Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Meat + vinegartop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,428 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).