Name: To Boast Beef Heart
Ingredients: 1 beef heart; dressing (as for turkey); 1 glass of wine; coarse sea salt; pepper

Why it works: Beef and turkey work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

To Boast Beef Heart

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Wash the beef heart carefully and open it to remove the ventricles.
Soak the heart in cold water until the blood is discharged, then wipe it dry.
Stuff the heart with dressing as for turkey.
Roast the heart at 400°F (200°C) for about 1.5 hours.
Serve with gravy thickened with some of the stuffing and a glass of wine.

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 + turkeytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together248 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,066 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,372 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).