Name: Full Diet
Ingredients: 1 cup oatmeal; ½ cup buttermilk; 6 oz boiled meat; 1 lb potatoes; 3 oz bread; 1 oz barley; 1 oz mixed vegetables; 2 oz meat; 1 pint milk

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 ↓

Full Diet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the porridge

Cook 1 cup of oatmeal in water until thickened.
Stir in ½ cup of buttermilk before serving.

Cook the meat and potatoes

Boil 6 oz of meat until tender.
Peel and boil 1 lb of potatoes until soft.
Serve with 3 oz of bread on the side.

Make the broth and serve

Prepare broth by simmering 1 oz of barley, 1 oz of mixed vegetables, and 2 oz of meat in water.
Serve 1 pint of milk as a beverage.

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).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal: Thickens as its starch absorbs water and swells during cooking, forming the body of the porridge.
Buttermilk: Adds moisture and a tangy flavour to the thickened oatmeal.
Potatoes: Soften into a starchy, filling base that holds moisture and body.
Barley: Adds chewy texture and body to the broth as it simmers.
Meat: Provides savoury flavour and protein that becomes tender through gentle boiling.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buttermilk, meat, bread, barley, milk):

Potatothe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Chivefits less well
Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, meat, bread, barley, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.