Name: Ordinary Diet
Ingredients: 40 oz cooked meat (for men); 3 oz cooked meat (for women); fib potatoes; ½ pint porter (for men above 16 years); ½ pint milk (for supper); 1 pint soup (if ordered)

Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Ordinary Diet

Ingredients

Directions

Serve 40 oz of cooked meat for men and 3 oz for women.
Include fib potatoes as a side.
For men above 16 years, serve ½ pint of porter.
For supper, offer ½ pint of milk or 1 pint of soup if requested.

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 + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,703 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).