Name: Breakfast
Ingredients: 1 pint of oatmeal; 8 oz. of bread; 1 pint of cooked meat (without bone); 1 lb. of potatoes; 6 oz. of soup; 6 oz. of bread

Why it works: Meat and potato work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 786 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare 1 pint of oatmeal according to package instructions.
Toast 8 oz. of bread until golden brown.
Heat 1 pint of cooked meat in a saucepan.
Boil 1 lb. of potatoes until tender, then mash.

Serve

Serve with 6 oz. of soup and additional 6 oz. of bread.

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 + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Bread + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together434 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal: Forms the bulk of the breakfast and provides a soft, starchy base.
Potatoes: Become soft and smooth when boiled and mashed, giving body to the dish.
Bread: Toasting browns its surface, adding crisp texture and roasted flavor.
Cooked meat: Heating it again warms the meat through, adding savory flavor and protein.