Name: Boiled Meat and Broth
Ingredients: 8 oz boiled meat; 20 oz potatoes; 3 oz bread; 1 pint broth; 1 oz barley; 1 oz vegetables; 2 oz meat

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 ↓

Boiled Meat and Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the meat until tender.
Peel and chop the potatoes, then boil them until soft.
Prepare the broth by simmering barley, vegetables, and meat in water until flavorful.

Serve

Serve the boiled meat with potatoes and bread, alongside the broth.

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).
Bread + barleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together201 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Meat + barleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together224 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat: Provides the main protein and flavor, and becomes tender through slow boiling.
Potatoes: Supply starch that softens when boiled, giving the dish body and bulk.
Barley: Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.
Vegetables: Add sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth as they simmer.
Bread: Serves as an accompaniment that soaks up the broth and adds texture.