Name: Stuffed Heart
Ingredients: 1 lb fried onions; 1 oz coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 oz allspice, finely ground; 1 oz white pepper, finely ground; 3 oz olive oil

Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Heart

Ingredients

1 lb fried onions
1 oz coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 oz allspice, finely ground
1 oz white pepper, finely ground
3 oz olive oil

Directions

Soak the heart for 48 hours if moderate sized, or 60 hours if large.
Remove the heart and wipe it dry.
Fill the hollows of the heart with the stuffing mixture of fried onions, salt, allspice, white pepper, and olive oil.
Press the stuffing into all accessible parts.
Sew thin leather or bladder over the base to secure the stuffing.
Hang the heart point downwards in your chimney and smoke it for three weeks.
Once boiled and cooled properly, it will be a delicious treat.

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.

Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Allspice + white peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together272 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Allspice + olivetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together796 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Onion + white peppertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,395 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).