Name: Fever Diet
Ingredients: 14 oz. Bread; 10 oz. Bread; 1 lb. Meat; 1 lb. Potatoes; 1 pint Milk; 1 pint Porter; 1 pint Tea; 1 pint Barley Water

Why it works: Potato and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 165 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fever Diet

Ingredients

Directions

For breakfast, serve 14 oz. of bread with porridge, sugar, and milk.
For dinner, choose 1 lb. of roasted meat or boiled chops with 1 lb. of potatoes or rice pudding.
For supper, have 1 pint of milk or tea with porridge or rice gruel, sweetened with sugar and milk.

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.

Potato + barleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together165 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Tea + barleytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together49 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Potato + teatop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).